Ryujou Chronicles 4: Legacy of a New Age
by Arhani 'Hanny' Daforcena
Summary: Kenshin and Miryu face Shishio Makoto with their allies and the American Nathan Algren. Will Battousai and Battouryu make it alive? Sequel to Daughter of a New Age. Ruruoni Kenshin and Last Samurai Xover. Pls RNR! .
1. Meeting

Kyoto had once been a city awash with the blood of many in the night, during the Bakamatsu, it had been a time where it was constantly raining blood, but now, they were in a time of peace, even after Katsumoto Moritsugu's rebellion. Although it had passed quietly, those who possessed the intelligence network to know that it happened noted that it truly heralded a time of peace for Japan, following the Samurai's graceful and glorious end to their own age, giving Japan and all her children into a new age where the people could shape their own fates.

Ten years ago, this city was where all the pain of war was felt. This city was where it had all began, and this city was where two dragons had carved a name for themselves. Two dragons that rose from the shadows, and disappeared in them as well: Himura Battousai and Tsubasa Battouryu. Ten years had passed, and the people of Japan received no word of them, save for a year ago that a woman known as Tsubasa Miryu, a woman with the rank of Samurai was married to a gaijin, awarded as a Samurai by Emperor Meiji, with pomp and much celebration. No more was said of this strange daughter of the Tsubasa Clan, disgraced as they were. Of course, there were whispers that Tsubasa Miryu and Tsubasa Battouryu were one and the same, but the common populace found it hard to put two and two together, for Tsubasa Miryu, now Algren Miryu, was more of an entrepreneur than a warrior. She had made a name for herself in the diplomatic community for offering protection and translation services to those who would hire her and her husband, despite their vast wealth.

But in Tokyo, things were all different. In the new capital city of Japan, progress came faster and faster day by day. New Western technologies were brought into the country, even the first steam train that linked the city to Yokohama bay. It was a dramatic change since before Commodore Perry's first steam trains came. The new age of peace had arrived, so deemed Kamiya Kaoru, the young Master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu, whose life has changed much ever since she had encountered a red-haired man, Himura Kenshin who called himself a rurouni, a wanderer.

He had come to her, as if it were a trick of fate, as if the Gods had willed it completely, and they had no choice to keep it from happening. She had been tracking down the man known as Hitokiri Battousai who had been using the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu to harm innocent bystanders, but she had not known that it was an imposter, and the rurouni she had brought to her home was the true Battousai. However, despite her curiosity, he did not reveal to her where Battouryu was, noting of the pact the two of them shared, and the danger his accomplice could bring to her.

They had become a great team together, with three others: Sagara Sanosuke, Takani Megumi and Myojin Yahiko, becoming into a group of fast friends, bound by destiny and by the trials they had faced, but none greater than the one that threatened to ruin the peace that they all held so dear. Shishio Makoto, the man who had taken Kenshin and Battouryu's place as the shadow Hitokiri of the Choushu-han, had risen again, and was now planning to overthrow the government. Home Minister Ohkubo had sought them out, seeking Kenshin's help, but to do so, he had to become a hitokiri all over again, he had kill and become the monster he once was…

Ohkubo had given them time until May 14th to decide Kenshin's participation, but in the meantime he was to visit a certain venue, where one of his old comrades resided in. He had told them that they would give him the counsel he needed, and perhaps even more. Kenshin knew immediately who that was, but for his companions, they had no clue who it was.

When they seemed to have reached their destination, they were facing a large estate, with high gates and walls. They could hear the sound of running water, and they could detect the clang of katana against katana, followed by the laughter of a man and a woman. As soon as Kenshin shouted words of greeting, the laughter stopped, and the door was opened, revealing a gaijin man with eyes the color of the sea, and a Japanese woman, tall and slender, her sapphire eyes glowing with a fiery light, dressed in gi and hakama as Kaoru would have when she trained.

"Battousai, there is only one reason you would intrude upon my humble abode at this time," the woman said to Kenshin with a slight smile, the bell tied onto the tsuba of her katana jingling as she sheathed her weapon. "Knowing you, you would have picked up pathetic life forms as well." Sanosuke was about to react to her words when she turned her gaze towards him, "Sanosuke, you have grown much. The last time I saw you, was a few days before Captain Sagara was executed… Do you remember?"

Sanosuke was a child of nine then, but he could always remember Tsubasa Battouryu as the first time he had laid his eyes upon her. She was dressed in rich kimono, but she still wore her katana, and her words were those of comfort. He had since forgotten the quality of her voice, but he remembered those sapphire eyes… How could Kenshin not tell him that he knew where Battouryu lived? "It is an honor to meet you again," he told her, bowing.

Kaoru just marveled at the woman before her. There was no doubt about it, this woman, was Tsubasa Battouryu. As Kenshin introduced her to Battouryu, she said to the young Kenjutsu instructor, "I knew your father, Kaoru-san; he was a brave warrior, with more valor than I had known in any man. He had wished to teach Kenjutsu in a time of peace, but it seemed that he expired before he could fulfill his destiny. It pleases my heart that you are doing so in his footsteps."

Then and there, Kamiya Kaoru thought that she would faint. She had never known that her father had known Tsubasa Battouryu, and spoke her exact thoughts to the other woman. "Oh, my dear, I am no longer Tsubasa Battouryu," she replied with a smile. "I am now a wife to a gaijin, an American once hired to train the army. Perhaps, amongst the folds of those who still watch my every move, it would be more appropriate to call me Algren Battouryu."

The gaijin shared a chuckle with Kenshin and Battouryu. "Miryu, we should not keep our guests waiting at the door," he chastised in accented Japanese, astounding their new acquaintances to no end. "Come, we have tea already prepared to you."

They knew what the gaijin meant, Shishio's spies were numerous, and there would be a great watch on Battousai and Battouryu indeed, if they were his targets to begin with. But nonetheless, the experience of meeting the other famous hitokiri had opened her eyes more than Kaoru could ever have thought, and immediately, she wanted to know more about this strange new warrior, and her role in this new age of peace that was about to be shaken once again.


	2. Pasts

"I will be honest with you," Miryu said to Kenshin, "I was the one who was tasked to kill Shishio ten years ago, before the Emperor hired me as his bodyguard." Gasps rang around the sitting-room where she and Algren led them to, adorned with the finest porcelain and the best furniture, all previously under Katsumoto's possession. "But before I could hunt him down, he found me, and he tried to entice me into his service."

* * *

_Shishio Makoto looked at Tsubasa Miryu, her katana drawn, her sapphire gaze filled with a raw fire that he knew that would be his if he could convince her to become his ally. "You and I are the same, do we not seek for a better Japan?" he asked her gently, "The two of us knows what bloodshed does to people like us, it either invigorates our souls, or plunges them into utter darkness… I have seen you fight, Tsubasa Battouryu, you are like a dragon soaring in the sky, matchless, the best among the best of Japan. I beg you, see through the blindfold that the politicians we served!"_

_Miryu looked at him and scoffed. Her quarrel with politicians had ended the moment Katsura Kogoro reassigned her and Kenshin into becoming mobile attackers. "Japan will be at peace, as the Ishin-Ishishi have promised, I swore an oath that I will destroy every single dissident that stands in my way of assuring that reality lasts," she spat. Her anger was building, but none quite yet. She still had patience to bandy words with this would-be corpse. _

"_Dissident?" Shishio asked with a raised eyebrow. "Four years ago, all those under the Ishin-Ishishi were called just that, you know it better than others. How sure are you that what those above said are no different than what the Bakufu had said as well?" His words struck through her mind like the swordsmith's hammer against the hot steel when a weapon was made, and she pondered her answer for a long while. She was not blind, that as a country newly reformed, as a country that would embrace a new system, a new philosophy, there would be many hiccoughs at first, and that they must find their own footing in their own time. "Tsubasa Miryu, you are indeed a visionary, why don't you take control instead?"_

_The look on Miryu's face became one of amusement. "It is because I wish to be free," she replied, "Free to serve my people as I would, free from no order or command unless I wish it to be." Shishio noted the state of her sapphire eyes, they looked as if she was describing a dream… Even if she emerged victorious over four years of war and blood, she was still a child, of 18 years of age, an idealist as she was a beauty._

_Striking his most charming smile, Shishio dropped his katana and took one of her hands in his. "These hands are so beautiful, they are not made for a katana. They are made for the young, beautiful lady, for fans and for tea, for silks and jewels," he told her, cornering her until her back was against a tree. "You are a jewel among warriors, Battouryu, you do not know how many men will die for a wife like you… Me including…"_

_Miryu's eyes turned from sapphire to amber. "I yearn no love for any man like you," she scowled. "I am not a thing to be won, a jewel to be taken when and if you desire to. I am Tsubasa Miryu, a student of the Hiten-Mistsurugi Ryuu…" Before she could complete her sentence, Shishio closed his lips upon hers, in a kiss that she did not want, that she could not anticipate. _

"_You do not know how long I have watched you from the shadows," Shishio told her. "Join me, and you and I will rule this country together. You will be known as a warrior-Queen, and you will have no need to serve any master…"_

"_I served no other master," Miryu fought back, "Even under the Ishin-Ishishi, I fought for the people of Japan, the others did no more than to guide me, and I am grateful."_

_A smile crossed Shishio's features, this time, it no longer served to charm. "Ah yes, you are a student of Katsumoto Moritsugu… How could I have forgotten such an important fact? That is why you are different from Battousai, who is driven by blind ambition like Katsura. You have the skills of a politician, do you know that? You take what you have and use it, from the greatest arsenal to the slightest shred of hope, it makes you strong, and the strong will prevail…"_

_A gunshot was heard, and in the center of Shishio's forehead, was a bullet. "Tsubasa Battouryu, you shall not speak of this to anyone," said one of the shadowed figures. "We shall burn the body, and we will meet again. The Emperor wishes to see you, and we plead that you do not add this to your report."

* * *

_

Algren took Miryu's hand as she told Kenshin what had happened. She had never told anyone that part of her tale before, not even Graham. "Days later, I swore myself into the service of the Emperor, and the rest, is history... Kenshin, Shishio is no common foe of yours, his treachery goes deeper than you know."

"Nothing ever escaped you, Miryu," Kenshin replied with a smile similar to that of hers. "What do you think that I can do, what path can I choose? If we kill Shishio together, if I draw blood again, I shall be nothing but the hitokiri we were, but if we spare him, Japan will never be safe…" He did not realize that the others were shocked by the sudden change in the manner of which he spoke. Miryu, however noted it internally, but said nothing of it, for she knew the answer. The bond shared between them was special, alike that of a brother and a sister, but something even deeper.

The reply from Miryu was one that Kenshin could not expect to come from one such as her. "Last year when Katsumoto staged his war against Minister Omura, I killed at least a hundred men, does that make me a hitokiri all over again?" she asked him, demanding an answer. "I am you, I know that. I do not have the ability to promise that I shall never kill again, but I know that I have killed because I needed to, because if I do not, I cannot fulfill my mandate to protect those than cannot protect themselves…"

"The samurai can indeed protect themselves," Kenshin replied, but was cut off by Miryu almost immediately.

"Can they, Kenshin? How could we have protected ourselves from a growing nation of peasants and merchants that have gained political power, embittered by centuries of exploitation and reverence, to and by, the samurai?" Miryu replied, "We had nothing at that battle, nothing but the same armor our ancestors had, arrows, spears, and the katana in our hands, against cannons and Gatling guns, have you ever once thought that against such hatred and anger, we were defenseless?

This is why, Kenshin, why I chose to fight last year. I knew that you disagreed with my stand, but it was my stand to take. I did what I had to do, and now, you must choose the same."

Kenshin knew that Miryu had sensed his disagreement at her participation in last year's massacre that almost threatened to destroy their nation, but luckily, went by with merely a whisper in the wind. He had thought that it was all a rumor, that the Emperor's beloved teacher, who was also his former comrade had decided to march against the government, not until he saw Katsumoto's retinue in Tokyo, with Miryu and Algren in tow. He also knew that she had not wished to play the card of social rank. She was a daughter of nigh nobility among the samurai, but he was a farmer's son, given a surname by his Ishin-Ishishi comrades… "So, you are saying that I should kill Shishio, if the situation calls for it?"

Kamiya Kaoru had not seen Kenshin wearing the expression he had worn that moment. She knew that his soul was a perplexed one, but still, the confusion within him, was staggering. She had always believed hitokiri Battousai and Battouryu were monsters with black hearts that only lived for bloodshed. In her childhood, she had grown up listening to stories as to how those legends had fought in a conflict that lead to a completely new era, where democracy was soon to be achieved, where the sons of peasants were able to hold high offices, but she had never imagined the depth of their internal struggles.

"I am saying that you should choose whatever you must, whatever you can and wish to do, and stand by it, without any remorse or fear," Miryu said, "I will answer Minister Ohkubo's call, and I will do what it takes to end what I have started, to end the menace that will certainly destroy everything I have strived to accomplish… Take it this way, Kenshin, those sons we had killed, those fathers, uncles, brothers, nephews and cousins that were our victims ten years ago, they would have died for nothing if we do not stop Shishio."

Sanosuke had had enough. In his young mind, she spoke the same way as did all the others they had seen. She had only made her words easier for Kenshin to understand and absorb. "Come on, only Kenshin can decide what he must do!" he exclaimed, slamming his fist on the ornate table, rising in anger. Miryu just smiled and told him that he had grown much since she had last saw him, but not enough to comprehend the slightest tremor within Kenshin's own thoughts.

Yahiko was incensed as well. To him, Kenshin was the best and wisest warrior he had ever known, regardless of his past as a hitokiri. He would definitely find a way to do it the way he had chosen to. In that case, it would be defeating Shishio Makoto without killing him.

"There is a way, though," Miryu finally said. "You need a set of skills superior to that of what you currently have. You need a new way to take down your enemies, and there is only one man who can give it to you. You know who he is, Kenshin, and you know where to find him again…"

Kenshin blinked for a moment. How could he have been so blind? He had almost forgotten that he had left his training to join the Ishin-Ishishi, while Miryu remained. He had always acknowledged that she was the more powerful one of the two of them, even if he was more notorious and more prominent among them, and he also knew why. But was that road still open to him, would that man still accept him, after how he had left? If that option was indeed available to him, would he take it? Would he gamble with this shred of hope in exchange for his own life and sanity?

Japan had weathered worse than this apparent coup of Shishio Makoto, with Tsubasa Battouryu still guarding her, will her people still be safe if Himura Battousai would not fight as well?


	3. Intruder

"Shishou once said that with the sakura of spring, the stars of summer, the fall's amber moon and the snow in winter, there would be no single reason why Sake should not taste good," Miryu said to Algren, her sapphire eyes looking towards the sky. She could not see the moon that night; it was hiding behind the clouds, veiled by the dark night. They had been sparring ever since Kenshin and his friends had left their house, in the final steps of finalizing the ougi of their own style, one that they decided to teach their children in the future, their children's children and more children to come…

Algren took a sip of Sake and passed it to Miryu with a kiss, grasping a lock of her dark hair. "Now tell me that it made Sake taste better for you," he teased, effectively dodging a hit that would have landed on his head. He knew what troubled his wife, he knew it well. Ever since Ohkubo came to them before he had seen Kenshin, she was often immersing herself into her training and her own thoughts.

She took his hand and said, "It did," with a blush that illuminated her face, brightened further by the candlelight glowing slightly beside her. "Sake tasted a lot worse before you did _that_, Nathan." Throughout their courtship, she had addressed him by his title as Captain, and by his last name, it was only after they were married that she called him by his name, which endeared him more to her, but still, it felt strange to her own tongue, despite being his wife for a whole year already. Her thoughts soon returned to Shishio, how she should have defeated him, and how she would have to defeat him when the time came. "Ten years ago, Sake tasted like blood to Kenshin and I, until we were liberated from the mindless killing ordered by our superiors."

"You were young then, you couldn't have known that you would be killing by the hundreds under orders," Algren told her, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb. "But you made the best of it when you had the chance," Miryu gave him a dry laugh in response to those words. She told him that if she had continued to serve as a shadow Hitokiri, the one that would be shot by the head and burnt would be her, and she would have had no hope to survive that fate. "Does the glass have to be half empty?"

Miryu leaned her head on his shoulder and replied, "It does not, but to that end, I owe my life to Katsura… Algren, if I could have killed Shishio that night ten years ago, nothing like this would have happened. I promised to uphold the peace of Japan, but last year, I followed a rebellion raised by my mentor and now… the man I was tasked to kill is rising against the government with Machiavellian principles, I cannot live with myself knowing this…"

If Nathan Algren had whole-heartedly believed that she had fought in that battle last year without a worry, he did not deserve to be her husband at all. Even after a year had passed, she still carried the guilt of it, even more so when the Emperor himself had given them full pardon, lavished them with Katsumoto's former abode and given Algren the rank of Samurai. But regardless, she fought to save the honor and the valor of her people, as a final stand against the coming of a new age. It pained him to see her so perplexed, but he knew that it was another challenge that she must face on her own.

With his arm around her shoulder, he offered her comfort that she needed in silence, no words could take away what she was feeling, and he would do as much as he could to alleviate her guilt and pain, as she had done for him. "Not so much of a happy-go-lucky killing machine, am I?" she asked him sheepishly, after a deep breath. "If you knew what you know now about me, would you still have married me?"

"Yes," Algren replied, tilting her chin towards him. She loved him without even considering the atrocities that he had done, she had brought him from the very edge of darkness and alcohol into a state of conscious serenity after nigh a lifetime of nightmares, he would have given his very soul to her, much less marry her. She was no angel, neither was he, but without her, his life would be nothing but whiskey and nightmares, nothing but emptiness and pain. No one was perfect, that he knew, and there would be moments were even the strongest would lose their strength.

He drew her into his arms and kissed her, waiting until she responded to him, and then deepening the kiss as he knew best, knowing that she would love every single moment of it. For just one moment, he wanted her to forget about what could have been, and what should be done, he wanted her to remember that she was only human, and she could only do so much. More importantly, he wanted her to know how much he loved her, and that he would be with her every step of the way, just as she had been with him.

"Nathan…" she breathed, leaning into his warm body as he began to deliver kisses to the arch of her neck; she loved it when he did that. It did not take long for him to discover where she most sensitive, and when he did, he exploited every single place he could find. Wrapping her white arms around his neck, she sighed as he managed to sneak a hand through the folds of her obi to lightly caress the curves of her cleavage. But in the corner of her eye, she could see a shadow moving about the courtyard, feeling a flare of Ki as Algren slid his tongue through her parted lips, no doubt, aware of the intruder as well.

Her husband then moved his hand up her thigh, and obtained the dagger she always left concealed underneath her kimono and threw it towards the intruder, who swung his katana just before the dagger could reach his heart. At first sight, he would have thought the perpetrator to be a child, but on second thought, no child had that amount of power.

The strangest thing was that he was smiling, even though Algren tried to kill him. "Sorry for interrupting your… private moment, but I come to bear a message for Tsubasa… er Algren Battouryu-san from Shishio-san, my master," the youth said with a bow.

"And what does Shishio wish to say to a married former hitokiri?" Miryu replied, her hand resting tightly on her katana. This child was more than what he appeared to be, that much she knew. He was exactly like she was ten years ago. Young, powerful and bloodthirsty, there was nothing that could possibly stop him if he wanted to begin in a dance of death. But the boy came armed with only a wakizashi, which she thought to be strange.

The boy introduced himself as Seta Soujirou, and said, "Shishio-san demands that you reconsider your choice of a husband, for a gaijin is no match for a daughter of noble birth such as you… He also pleads that you do for him what you have done for your late mentor Katsumoto Moritsugu, and he would show you _pleasures_ greater than any man can give…"

Before he could even continue, Miryu replied, "What if I refuse Shishio's requests? As you can see, Seta-san, I am happily married with enough wealth to support the grandchildren of my great-grandchildren…" Her eyes were turning into a deep shade of amber, and she would no sooner face this boy in combat, but something told her that it was not his agenda that night. "You will return and tell Shishio that he can rot wherever he is, and I will finish what I have started ten years ago."

"Then Shishio-san says that if you still remain as stubborn as an untamed dragon, he will have no choice but to kill you," Soujirou replied with a smile. "It would be a high honor to kill the _greatest_ warrior in Japan, even if she was a woman…" Then, he turned towards Algren and said, "Shishio-san says this to the gaijin Nathan Algren: _You might have stolen the heart of the jeweled dragon that is Battouryu, but do not sit upon your victory for too long. Prepare to be a widower before the end, if you value your life, for only fools like your lovely wife would ever think to stand against me_."

Algren raised an eyebrow. Was it an Oriental trait to think that all Westerners were inferior to them? While it would be fair to say that Shishio had chosen his words from the information that he had gathered about him, but kenjutsu was not the only way to fight. "I'll think about it," he told Soujirou, holding Miryu's hand openly.

"Is this your answer, Battouryu?" Soujirou asked. "You will stand against Shishio-san, even when he promises you to rule by his side when all his goals are accomplished?"

Miryu chuckled and said, "I turned down the chance to become an Empress when I was your age, Seta-san, I think I can turn it down a second time. Besides, does your master not have a woman that loves him? Komagata Yumi, that Oiran whose name could melt hearts with barely a whisper? Why would he want me as well?" While she might not look like it, her own intelligence network spread far and wide, for she had both the Oniwabanshuu and Saito at her side. Information could be easily gathered from both sources, and what she had found out about Shishio staggered her. He had been to Shanghai in China, and had contacted a weapons dealer, purchasing something with a huge sum of money… Somehow, she knew that it would be a big part of his plans for Japan's dominion…

It was Soujirou's turn to laugh. "Well, that's because Yumi-san would also welcome you into the relationship," he answered. "Like me, she understands that only the very best deserves to help Shishio-san. She would be willing to share him with you, if it pleases Shishio-san…"

Polygamy was rampant in Japan, Miryu's paternal grandfather had many concubines, and her father was conceived by his favorite, a gaijin said to be saved from a capsized trading ship from Europe… It would be natural that this former Oiran would agree for her to be another concubine of Shishio. But for Algren, it was strange and downright wrong. He would not subject the woman he loved to such a fate, and he told it to Soujirou, adding, "If Shishio wants Miryu, he would have to go through me first."

Miryu put a hand on Algren's and smiled to him. "I have heard enough, Seta-san, and I have no need to deliberate on this at all. Return with a message of my own: I will not cooperate, and we shall meet again, along with Battousai and we shall destroy him before he is even able to destroy Japan."

"Then so be it," Soujirou said, a smile still present in his features. And then, as quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared, leaping out of the vast estate from tree to tree until he was over the high walls. It was only then did Miryu sigh a breath of relief.

Algren looked at his wife and asked, "Are you alright?"

She nodded and kissed his temple. "I am… that boy, there is something about him. I was not aware of him until he chose to reveal himself… Why?" Although Algren was a proficient fighter, he was not trained in any way to utilize Ki, only focused on the effectiveness of taking down his opponents, due to the culture of his training. "He would be a difficult opponent…"

He smiled, and kissed her back, asking her not to worry, before he began to rain kisses all over her flawless face. "Now, where were we?" he asked.


	4. Departure

It was already afternoon when Miryu and Algren met up with Kenshin, on the way to see Minister Ohkubo. The three of them were walking from Tokyo to Kioisaka, where they had deemed to be a place of convinience to the busy man, who had since taken over Minister Omura's duties following the latter's public disgrace. All three of them spoke not a word, all three of them earning curious stares, a gaijin, a man with red hair and a cross-shaped scar, and a woman with sapphire eyes, all bearing katana as if they had no fear of the law. They could hear many whispers but they did not pay heed. What was more important, was Kenshin's decision to take part in any future skirmish against Shishio Makoto.

Suddenly, Miryu stopped dead in her tracks, and covered her mouth, as if halting a gasp of shock. "Miryu, what did you see?" Kenshin asked her, and immediately noticed the crowd before them, the foul stench of blood ripe in the air. Someone had been killed. Steeling his heart, Kenshin went forward to inspect the commotion, only to find a run-down carriage, and a man, covered in a white sheet.

"It is Ohkubo Toshimichi..." Miryu murmured, "We were too late..." While it was true that she was used to death, the suddenness of Ohkubo's passing was too great to comprehend at the moment. Even if she and Kenshin were not particularly close to him during the days of the Bakamatsu, he was still one of their former comrades, and even if he was a highly ranked superior, he still believed in their abilities. Algren took her hand in his, itself being a measure that brought great comfort to her.

Although immediately after, there were seven samurai from Ishikawa who claimed to be responsible for the assassination, Miryu, Kenshin and Algren knew that no samurai of mediocre capabilites were able to take down a speeding carriage unscathed, much less kill its passenger. The person who did it must have monumental prowess of speed and agility, and the ability to hide his Ki, for it was to be made known that Ohkubo Toshimichi was once a formidable warrior himself...

It came to only one conclusion: Minister Ohkubo was assassinated by one of Shishio Makoto's men, and there was nothing to refute this claim. But the question was: Who?

Algren knew who that person could be, and he had a huge hunch that it was the boy who had intruded upon his and Miryu's estate a few nights previous. Even Miryu said that he has tremendous potential... Could he be that assassin? If the boy was indeed Shishio's lackey, he must be a very important lackey to have been given such a monumental task... Seta Soujirou...

Miryu looked around, and felt a strong burst of Ki, but subtle enough that only she and Kenshin could sense it. If Algren had suspected that the boy was near them, he would be absolutely right, and she knew that no matter how hopeless her husband was in sensing Ki, his deductive skills were top-notch, and she trusted him, as she trusted Kenshin and her own self. Her hand instinctively found its way to the handle of her katana, and she was about to turn when she heard his voice, saying:

"If you do not wish to die as well, please do not defy Shishio-san, for your own sake,"

Kenshin looked around, but found no one. However, he could see the figure of a young boy moving from the area, the katana that he carried suddenly becoming so obvious to the rurouni's eyes. Miryu put her hand on his shoulder and told him that the boy was a dangerous one indeed, and that he was working for Shishio Makoto without a doubt.

"Come, we have to get back to Tokyo," Miryu said to the two men. "Kawaji would want to see us nonetheless."

* * *

While it was true that Miryu had little to do with the political arena, she was certainly not one who was ignorant about its comings and goings. Being the Emperor's former bodyguard had granted her unprecedented freedom in and out of the Imperial Palace, and even throughout Japan if she wished it be. She followed every move of every politician, and while she was content that the highest ranked of the Ishin-Ishishi like Yamagata Aritomo, the late Katsumoto, and the recently dead Ohkubo still had the welfare of the country in their minds, she was often saddened by the corruption and deceit that those of lower ranks commited, particularly those who had their first taste of power.

Democracy was a new thing for Japan, where the people had always followed the orders of others. There were many rumors, whispers across the country that one day, their great nation too, would embrace democratic principles like many countries in the West. And Miryu knew that democracy was high on Ohkubo's agenda, and he was sorely disappointed on how slow his quest would take to complete.

It was already well into the evening when Kenshin, Miryu and Algren went to see Kawaji, the Police Chief, only to find Saito there as well. They were soon joined by another man, one Yamayoshi, the governor of the Fukushima Prefecture, who was the last person to see Minister Ohkubo.

"The one thing that worries me," said Yamayoshi, after elaborating on Ohkubo's last words, "was that he was usually so reserved, but he became so open and forthcoming... had he prior knowledge already that he was about to die?"

All four of them looked at one another, and did not know how to answer the man. As warriors, they were more in tune to death and bloodshed than any other. They knew when a man was about to die, whether it was by their hand, or the hands of others, but how and when, they could never tell. Nobody could.

"Two great men lost in the space of a year," Saito sighed, lighting up a cigarette as they exited the police headquarters. Despite fighting for the Shinsen-Gumi during the Bakamatsu, Saito Hajime had always a profound sense of respect towards both Katsumoto Moritsugu and Ohkubo Toshimichi. They had served solely for the people, and not for their own greed and power, unlike many others... "Japan will wander off course, and Shishio would be laughing all the way into the government."

Miryu looked at her "uncle" and said, "There will be a way to stop this madness, there _has_ to be a way..." She looked at the setting sun on the horizon and said, "Ten years ago, once the sun set in Kyoto, it would rain blood without fail... I will not suffer my country being plunged into those dark times ever again."

Kenshin looked up and asked, "Will you wait for me here when night falls?" Miryu nodded, and smiled. There was no need for him to speak further, for he knew that she perfectly understood what he was about to do. He had made up his mind. He would stop this Shishio Makoto at his tracks once and for all, with Miryu by his side, as always, and he would find a way that would enable him to do so, without losing himself to Battousai, buried deep into his own psyche.

"Go to her," Miryu told him, knowing that he would want to say his farewells to the young Kamiya girl. "She would not forgive you if you left without a word." She knew that the girl had harbored strong feelings for her friend, it was so prominent that only a fool could have denied it, and Kenshin was no fool. He was just afraid, afraid that he might taint her with what he deemed as his own sins, what he deemed as his own wrongdoings. But she knew that he was truly afraid that Tomoe's fate would one day be hers, for he had truly loved Tomoe as well.

Kenshin looked at her, not surprised in any way. The two of them would always be able to read one another's minds, and he smiled. It was her way of saying: when everything is over, I want her as your wife, and no other. It was the same with Algren, of course, but that was a story that was different all together. "I will meet at your estate later tonight."

* * *

"Nathan, I want you to go with Saito," Miryu told Algren when they returned to their home, in the privacy of their room, kissing his temple before she started to pack her belongings. "That way, you will reach Kyoto faster, and you will be in less danger."

Algren scoffed, and held her hand, staying her from any further movement. "And why would you come to such a thought, _Algren_ Battoryu?" he asked, placing emphasis on his last name that she had took as hers after they were married, "and I have a gun, what can they do to me?"

She rolled her eyes and said, "Before you are able to shoot anyone, you would already be dead, you pig-headed American," She removed all the jewelry on her body, and began to run through an assortment of many more to search for a few understated, yet extremely valuable pieces in case she and Kenshin would need the money.

Inwardly, Algren smiled. He knew how independent his wife was, but he also knew that she was just as stubborn as Kenshin was when she wanted to be. "Is that so?" he asked her, pulling her into a deep, heated kiss that he knew would drive her to be hungrier for more. But what he did was to gain another vehement glare from her, when they parted, gasping for air.

"Please, do not do this," Miryu begged him, slumping into his arms. It would be the first time in many, many years that she would be reunited with Kenshin, on a mission that only the two of them could complete, and the first time where she would be facing sudden death, without Algren by her side. "I will not be able to sleep, knowing that you are with me when Shishio clearly wants Kenshin and I dead. Nathan, you are the last person I want to see when something bad happens."

Algren took her hands in his, and kissed them lightly. "Nothing will happen, Miryu. We will meet each other in Kyoto, and we will take that scumbag down whether he likes it or not."

His words were comforting, and for him, she knew that she had to force a smile, even though he would catch that it was all a ruse. No one else knew how powerful Shishio Makoto actually was except from her, even if they had never crossed blades in all actuality. The day when she met him, all she felt was power, raw power, power that she never thought could exist in a man, or anyone for that matter. And everything about him, was fire. Placing a last silk obi into her pack, she kissed his brow, and said, "Kenshin is here, we should go now."

* * *

Saito was not surprised to see his pseudo-niece's husband when they had come with Kenshin. It was Kenshin that surprised him, actually. He had never thought that the former hitokiri would ever want to step foot into Kyoto ever again. "So, have you said your goodbyes to the Kamiya girl?" What he received from the rurouni, was only an amber-eyed glare, which he rather enjoyed seeing. "Sorry, slip of tongue... Well, you are stuck with me as long as fighting Shishio is concerned, Kawaji has put me in charge with the Kyoto police."

It was Miryu who chuckled. "No wonder the smug expression," she said in an undertone to her husband, and Saito paid no heed to it. The girl had always a mischevious tongue around him, ever since she knew that he was the sworn-brother of her mother. That, and she tried to kill him in many, many skirmishes ten years ago.

"If we leave now for Yokohama, we will be able to catch the next ship to Osaka," Saito added. Turning to Kenshin when the rurouni gave no response, he guessed it was because the shorter man had no money. "Don't worry, Miryu can spare you some, or the navy, for that matter."

"No, Miryu and I are going the Toukai way," Kenshin replied. "Shishio's men will appear where no one expects them to, and if we are on a ship, we may endanger the innocent there." Saito merely looked at him, and growled that if he still thought like a rurouni, he would fight him then and there, Miryu as well.

However, the both of them were adamant in their decision. "Saito, if you are lonely, then Nathan shall accompany you," she suggested with a wicked smile, knowing that he would just ignore her husband altogether. "I want him safe and sound when we get to Kyoto, as best you can manage."

Saito raised an eyebrow. "I can do more than that, I promise you, my darling niece," he told her. "Very well, it would take ordinary people ten days to reach Kyoto using the Toukai way, for the two of you, it would take only five. But be careful, Shishio's intelligence network is like a spider's web, and he will be watching your every move."

"We will be careful de gozaru yo," Kenshin added with a bow while Miryu went to Algren's side to give him a good-bye kiss which was a little more intimate than what he had expected it to be. But that could not be helped, for Algren was a Westerner, and knew little of the norms of the Japanese, at least, that was that Kenshin had thought.

"Take care," Algren told his wife, squeezing her into a hug before she and Kenshin disappeared into the night. "How long would it be until Shishio strikes them?" he asked Saito, who said that no one would ever know, for if his existence was a complete mystery during the Bakamatsu, if he was proclaimed to be so dangerous that he had to be shot and burnt, certainly he would attack Kenshin and Miryu the first chance he has.

However, Saito looked towards the direction of the Toukai way and added, "I would not worry about them, American. It seems to be like you need to be more fearful for your skin. Shishio's agents are nothing like the conscripts you faced last year."


	5. Dragon

Two days, it had been two days since Kenshin and Miryu had left Tokyo, and for two days, they had received a fair amount of hushed whispers and foreboding stares, all because they were wearing katana. However, it was not the last of Kenshin's concerns. It was the lack of money, for he had forgotten to pack a larger amount, and it did not help that the Kamiya Dojo had a substantial income.

But something caught his eye, and something very, very shiny, and something sharp, by the looks of it, but not that it would bring anyone any harm... It was Miryu's hair-stick that held her flowing ebony hair in a simple hairstyle, and not only that, it was encrusted with many stones, and dangling from it, was a large red stone, which Kenshin judged to be very, very expensive.

Mrs. Algren did not need to think twice to even guess that Kenshin had an eye on her hair-stick, it was only natural, and she decided to have some fun with him. Moving close to him, she waited until she could sense his hand slowly reaching up to grab the ornament, only to turn her head in another direction. It was the most hilarious thing that she had ever seen, and she could not stop but harbor a little giggle when she saw him falling down.

"With our katana, no one will ever dare come close to us," Kenshin said, resuming a serious face. "Miryu?"

The woman's gaze was fixated on a rather plump policeman, who was blowing his whistle at them. Raising an eyebrow, she watched as he approached them, screaming, "Hey, you over there, you two!" he exclaimed when he walked towards them. "Do you know that the wearing of katana is illegal?"

The woman looked at the policeman and gave him a look at her ring. "I am Algren Miryu, the ward of the Emperor," she told him, with the most seductive smile that she could ever muster. The policeman inspected the ring closely, and immediately stood up straight, and gave her a deep bow.

"My apologies, Algren-dono!" he exclaimed profusely, before turning towards Kenshin. As it turned out, Kenshin did not have the proper "documentation", per se, and was chased around the paddy fields, and Miryu just followed them, occasionally prodding the policeman to chase Kenshin in the direction they were supposed to be heading to.

In the end, Kenshin was able to lose the policeman, and still able to keep up with Miryu, who swore that if she laughed more, her intestines would rupture on the spot. "You were supposed to help me de gozaru yo!" he screamed at her out of annoyance. "After all we have been through, it is not the way to treat me de gozaran!"

Miryu replied with only more laughter. In the days of their childhood, they would always find ways to get back at Hiko for his harsh training methods and verbal insults, and there would not be a time when Miryu refused to help him. Granted, she would be the first to defend him whenever their Shishou cracked down on them. "Kenshin, you were more than able to shake that policeman off," she chided him gently. "Besides, how was I to know that he would chase you around for so long?"

By this time, Kenshin had forgotten about being angry with Miryu, and had subconsciously returned to his task of removing her hair-stick when he saw that it was literally in his grasp. With the quickest of reflexes, he actually managed to remove it from her hair, and luckily, she had others to hold her hairstyle firmly in place. And throughout the rest of their journey, he began to look for pawnshops to sell the item, thinking that it would bring a small forture to say the least.

Night had begin to fall when Miryu and Kenshin arrived at Odawara city, their first stop before arriving at Kyoto. In the old days, this city was where travellers would stop for the night before continuing towards the former capital city of Japan, and although railroads were built from Shinbashi to Yokohama, the city still held much of its former clientele of travellers who went by foot.

"How much for a night's stay?" Miryu asked a woman who was promoting an inn called the Odaya. "My brother and I wish to rent a room for the night..." She did not care that the woman strove very, very hard to find any hint of family resemblance between her and Kenshin, what she did care was the exorbitant prices the woman had quoted did conclude that they would have to camp out for the night.

Kenshin, however, was crestfallen, and disappointed. As it turned out, the hair-stick he had stolen from Miryu was actually worthless. The stones were fake ones, and even if they could pay a night's rent for the inn, they would be broke throughout their journey. "And I thought you were very, very, rich..." Kenshin muttered under his breath when she proclaimed that they had no money to stay in an inn in Odawara.

Miryu just looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "And let little thieves like you steal my hair-sticks and pawn them, I don't think so," she replied. Kenshin stood where he was, absolutely shocked. "Please do not tell me that you actually have the audacity to say that you never thought that I would notice?"

Kenshin pulled the best puppy-dog eyes he could muster, and instead, got hit on the head by Miryu using her katana, causing him to fly quite a distance, screaming, "Orooooo!"

* * *

Away from Odawara city, deep in the heart of Kyoto, a woman looks around her and takes a sip of red wine, imported from France, or some other European country, not that she cared. Her eyes, they were of the coldest sapphire, almost ice-like in quality. Her skin, white like the snow in winter, her hair gold like the sun, yet it looked as if it had been mixed with silver.

They said that it was impossible for her to be Japanese, that she must have been some daughter of a Caucasian that had been left behind. But to her, it mattered not. She had never spoken a tongue other than Japanese, and she will not even try. Not very long ago, she was once held in high regard, even if she was a woman. She still held a sword, and it was her birthright. Men feared her, and respected her, because she was a samurai, just like they were. But now, it mattered little.

Her rich kimono were now filled with holes, eaten by moths, and the beautiful golden threads were now muddy and brown. The embroidery of phoenixes and soaring dragons now disappeared, for she had picked at the sticthes just to make ends meet. No one needed one to bear a sword to protect them any more. They just need someone to help them out with their business...

She had become a rusty sword in a world where only money ruled.

"They said the line of Dragons ran with the bloodline of samurai daughters bearing the word 'Ryu'," a voice interrupted her. It was familiar, that voice, like the feel of silk to her body, and the smell of blood to her dainty little nostrils. "And yet, the great Nagasaki Hiryuko sits in her dark boudoir, sipping European wine alone..."

She turned towards him, and found him to be covered completely in bandages, only his eyes were spared. Fire emanated from him, and it was not his body temperature. It was hatred, it was greed, and it was the idealist within him. She did not need telling twice that this man was the one she had found for the Choushu Ishin-Ishishi after her distant cousin and that so-called hitokiri Battousai became mobile attackers.

"Shishio Makoto, I should have known that you survived," she said. Her voice, it was as if it were a silver bell ringing in the mountains. "Knowing you, you would be hounding the government day and night already..." She knew him in the days of her youth, when they studied under the a great and influential philosopher, the same one, that influenced the startings of the Ishin-Ishishi. "The survival of the fittest, indeed."

Shishio smiled and said, "Of course, my dear Hiryuko, as nature intended," He still had his old charm, she mused, and gave him a glass of wine. "You are not going to ask how I found you?"

Hiryuko looked and him, a smirk visible on her fair features. "Like how you always do, Shishio," she whispered, appearing at his side almost instantly, as if in the speed of light. Wrapping her arms around his broad back, she whispered into his ear, "Magic..."

"You were always the great seductress," he told her, before unsheathing her katana, which gleamed brightly in the candlelight. "Yet you never had a taste for me, even in those days."

She released her hold over him and snatched her katana back. "You have your precious oiran, and soon, you will obtain my distant cousin," she said, "You do not need boring, old, Hiryuko..."

If Shishio Makoto still had any eyebrows, she could have seen him raising them. "Old, Hiryuko?" he asked, "You are barely even forty."

To that, she replied, "But I feel every part of me slowly decaying, Shishio, like a spring blossom when summer is near. No one needs dear Hiryuko any more, not since succulent, young little Miryu came to town. I heard that she was in her little rebellion of her own, and the Emperor married her off to a gaijin dog. Does she even know the shame she has brought to our line?"

Draining his glass, Shishio placed it so that her likness was trapped in the glass. True, Tsubasa... No, Algren Miryu was beautiful, and she did have a great fire in her heart, her cousin was elegantly cold. She was a mountain capped with ice, ancient and imposing, her wrath like an avalanche that would not be stopped by raging fires. "She seems to bask in her glory, that girl. She thinks that the ways of the West are far better than our own."

"Just like the rest of our politicians... My brothers have all become corrupt pieces of swine... They just wanted the power their ancestors never had..."

Ah, so she had some griviences with the Meiji government as well. This was Shishio's chance. With the famed Battousai and Battouryu fighting against him, it would be fitting that Nagasaki Hiryuko would be on his side. But there was one thing, she was proud, horribly so. She only fought for the Ishin-Ishish not because of the promise of position, but because she held principles similar to that of Miryu's. And she was crestfallen that her cousin did not wish to eradicate the corruption that was before her, choosing only to become a lapdog of the boy-emperor with no real power... From there, she even dared to accept a marriage to an American... She had sullied the Line of the Dragons' name for too long.

"Then join me," Shishio said, "And you shall have the chance to prune your family tree, and remove a deceased branch." With Hiryuko fighting Miryu, all he had left as an adversary was Battousai, and that would certainly make things easier for him. Holding out his hand, he waited for her to take it. "Together, we shall burn the corrupt Meiji into ashes, and we shall make a new one for ourselves."

In truth, Hiryuko never heard Shishio's words after he told her that he would leave Miryu to her. Smiling as best she could, she took his hand, with her katana in another. Yes, a new age would come, and that upstart little Battouryu will die along with the old one.


	6. Makimachi Misao

The forest was silent and dark, save for the fire lit by the river, the four fishes that were being roasted, crackling nicely in the fire's embrace, and of course, two warriors softly bickering among themselves. "What about this, this can't be fake too!" Kenshin exclaimed, holding up a slender bangle, which shined and gleamed like gold. It ws so thin that it was actually almost weightless, and Kenshin dared not fathom what measely little sum he would get for this.

"This, baka, is Shishou's wedding present for me!" Miryu shouted back, and snatched back the little strand of gold and cradled it. It was the only strand of gold that Hiko Seijurou XIII had ever bought, and it took him months and months' work to purchase. Although she knew that he had spent most of the money on Sake, and that he knew that she could get any gold item she wanted, he still got it for her, and gave it to her in her private wedding ceremony held before him and him alone. "If you sell this, I will not hesitate to kill you..." Her threats were true, and Kenshin knew that from the flecks of amber that started to appear in her sapphire eys.

Sighing reluctantly, he said, "Maa, Miryu, I was joking..." He stole a look at Miryu, whose back was turned towards him, curled into a ball, and to make things worse, she seemed as if she was crying. Was it because she had been separated from her husband for too long, or was it he had said something that he should not? "Miryu..." Still, he was being ignored. He walked over to her, and found her face tucked between her knees, concealed from him. "Miryu?"

Then, what happened was what Kenshin could never see coming in a hundred years. Miryu took him by the wrist and flung him into the river, soaking him indefinately. Seeing that he was drenched, she started to laugh uncontrollably. "You should have seen your face, Kenshin," she giggled, handing him a towel that she had brought along.

"You are worse than Shishou is!" Kenshin shot back, earning another amber-eyed glare from Miryu. And as the night continued, the former hitokiri slipped back into a time when they had not known blood, war, guilt and sorrow. In short, they found themselves in a state of mind before they were tainted by the darkness of the Bakamatsu. Laughter came freely, and they were watched by the stars and the hidden moon, the children of the world, in the embrace of their mother, eating their smoked fish admist many reminisces.

Their mirth was interrupted, however, by the sound of men laughing, and a woman, with a highly seductive dulcet voice, one that Miryu could never dream to compare with. Immediately, their instincts kicked in, and they took their weapons with them and decided to inspect what was going on.

* * *

Four men, armed, and by the looks of them, they could be anything from vicious killers to random thugs, surrounded a woman. The men were holding bags of money, stolen, obviously, and were approaching dangerously close to the woman, if she could be judged as one, given her petitte stature.

"Do you have the money?" the woman asked, her face concealed by the hood of her cloak. She would be deemed as a fool, to be around these men, but she would have tremendous courage as well, to be dealing with them, not to mention be demanding money from them.

One of the men grinned, and said, "Yes," and it was the only answer that the woman needed.

She removed her cloak with much gusto, revealing herself to be no more than a teenaged girl-child, in the barest of clothings that revealed her status as a kunoichi in training gear. Miryu's eyes lit up when she saw the child, and knew immediately who she was. "She needs no assistance, this one," Miryu told Kenshin, her voice little more than a faint whisper. "She will handle herself well."

And as it turned out, it was exactly as Miryu had predicted, the fiesty teenager indeed could take out the four thugs. "Just use a sexy voice and the money will come rolling in!" the girl told herself gleefully before Miryu stepped into the clearing with a smile. "Miryu-san, what a coincidence it is!"

"Yes, a coincidence indeed, Misao-chan," the older woman replied. "And the last time I found you, you were in Tokyo, trying to steal the Emperor's tea."

Misao, as the girl was called, quickly built up her alibi, stating, "How was I to know that the Emperor was staying in a retreat, and not the Imperial Palace?"

Kenshin decided to make himself known, and said, "The thing is, we thought that those men were about to rob you, not the other way around..."

Miryu introduced the two of them to each other. "Misao-chan, this is Himura Kenshin, a very good friend of mine," she spoke to Misao, and to Kenshin, she said, "Kenshin, this is Makimachi Misao..."

"Hey, since the both of you are having katana, can I sell them instead?" Misao asked, almost angelically, her night blue eyes gleaming with as much innocence as she could feign.

"You can take Kenshin's," Miryu replied, and showed which one it was. Of course, Kenshin was loth for Misao to take his sakabattou, resulting in him absorbing blows from her. It gave him a chance to assses her prowess, which was actually above par, but given her small, small stature, they came to nothing at all, to a swordsman of Kenshin's calibre.

Kenshin then gave her a lecture about returning the money, which she would not heed at all. "If its stolen, it has to be returned de gozaru yo," he said, running away as fast as he could with the money, leaving Misao and Miryu behind, the latter trying hard to suppress a chuckle.

* * *

A few moments later, they were back in Odawara city, in front of the bank where the bags of money had come from. "It seems that they did not even know that they were robbed," Miryu commented, with Kenshin nodding in conformation. Without any sound, the two of them leapt onto the rooftop, leaving Misao on the ground below.

"Heh, that will not stop me!" the girl shouted, and with a powerful leap that followed a well-known kempo stance, which astounded Kenshin about her even more. Who was she, and how did she come to know Miryu? It did not matter, Kenshin said, after he had forced her to return the money, they made to leave, although the child did so reluctantly. "How am I supposed to return to Kyoto without any money?"

Miryu patted her head and said, "Even if it is so, it is not right to steal, even if it were from common robbers..." By that time, all three of them were walking on a bridge, far away from the bank that had been robbed. Their goal was to get out of Odawara city before the thugs could get to them, after Kenshin guessed that they could be members of the local yakuza gangs.

"Use the money we gave you to contact your guardian so he can pick you up here de gozaru yo..." Kenshin instructed before pausing for a few seconds. "Who is your guardian, anyways de gozaru ka?"

Misao heaved a sigh and said, "He used to be a great friend of my grandfather, and took me in when I was an orphan... But there was this guy who lived with the man, and he used to take care of me as well, but he left during the Bakamatsu, so I went everywhere to find him..."

"Including the Emperor's summer retreat," Miryu interjected. "She was lucky that heika found her... amusing..." In truth, her presence shocked the young Emperor to no end, thinking that she was an assassin who followed him around the retreat for the entire day, only to steal a cup of tea from his imperial tea service.

Misao was about to defend herself when they were approached by at least thirty men from either side of the bridge. Indeed, it was as Kenshin predicted, the robbers were from the local yakuza. "Give us back the money and no one will get hurt," one of them shouted, drawing his katana, with the others following suit.

"Well, that would be a good idea," Miryu replied, unsheating hers as well. "But we do not have the money that you speak of... However, if you have any brains at all, you will withdraw your men from this bridge and allow us safe passage before any harm comes to you."

However, Kenshin put his hand on Miryu's. "Miryu, I do not wish to smell the stench of blood," he told her as the yakuza began to charge towards them. His companion only gave him a small nod, indicating that she would follow as he had requested. Despite not vowing to stop killing, Miryu was no bloodthirsty murderer, and that Kenshin knew more than anything.

Taking her place behind Misao, Miryu got into the same stance as Kenshin, and waited until the yakuza came into the center of the bridge. And when they did, the two of them cut the bridge once each. With that, the bridge began to crack, and Misao found herself to be floating in the sky, Kenshin holding her by the arm, and Miryu on the other.

"That was amazing!" the girl exclaimed to the two of them after they were a safe distnace away from the yakuza. "How did you do that?"

Kenshin was the one who told the tale, saying, "During the Bakamatsu, Miryu and sessha fought many battles on riverbanks and bridges. All we had to do was to wait for the enemies to gather their weight on the center of the bridge, and wait for the moment to cut it down with ease..."

Misao listened to their tales with much fascination and enthusiam. Hearing their words made her believe that she was actually witnessing those battles first-hand. She was only sixteen... When they were her age, they had caused and witness enough bloodshed that they were immune to gore that would make grown men retch and faint within seconds... And the difference was stark. Misao might be highly mischevious and skilled, but she was still a child... The two of them, they stopped being children after they left the safe haven that was Hiko's abode.

"Well, I think the people I'm looking for could do much better than you can," Misao said with aplomb. And when Kenshin enquired who they were, she said, "They defended Edo Castle from the shadows ten years ago, that was why they left Kyoto in the first place... All five of them are the best warriors I'll ever know... And do you know what? One day, I'll find Ao-sama and the others!"

Although Miryu knew who Misao was talking about, she did not expect Kenshin's expression to change so quickly from one of curiousity, to one of sheer horror. Had he encountered the Oniwabanshuu, and if he had, what had been exchanged between him and the team of highly trained Onmitsu? Shinomoro Aoshi had been a prodigy as much as she and Kenshin were, the Okashira of the famous leage of ninja only at the age of fifteen. However, it was only after the Bakamatsu that she had come to know that the famous soba restaurant in Kyoto was run by the Oniwabanshu. That was after she had met Misao, and sent her packing straight home following the incident with the Emperor.

"Shinomori Aoshi..." Kenshin murmured, catching Misao's attention.

"Himura, have you seen Ao-sama?" she asked, but without a further word, Kenshin darted away from her, with Miryu following close after, leaving her in a daze.

Miryu might have been connected to many in the world of politics, but as for what happened in the shadows of Tokyo, she had little knowledge... "Kenshin, you must know what happened to Shinomori Aoshi..." She had met the man once before, she had met him, and joined him in combat, and she almost gained an upper hand. But for the sake of the ninja, who were facing extinction for longer than her people, the samurai, she decided to end their battle... They had been on cordial terms after that encounter.

"Beshimi, Hannya, Hyotokko and Shikijou were all killed," Kenshin told her before Misao caught up with them. "They died protecting Aoshi from a Gatling gun owned by an opium dealer, Takeda Kanryuu..."

_One of the big-shot businessmen liked it so much that he even bought one from us_! She remembered someone saying those words... Colonel Bagley, yes, that American snake that was her husband's suprerior, before Algren had killed him. Could this Takeda Kanryuu be the businessman that Bagley had boasted about? But it mattered not, Misao would be utterly shattered if she was to find out the fate of the Oniwabanshuu's members, and they could not allow her to follow them any further.


	7. Abandonment

Shinomori Aoshi was an enigma as much as Battousai and Battouryu had been, and it was not because that they were prodigies in their own rights. This man was cold and passionless, ruthless and wrathful when angered; he is also precise and calculative. Miryu had faced him in combat when she had tried to infiltrate Edo Castle, and she had called off her own mission after dealing him but a few blows. There was something within him that made her still her katana, and vice versa, something that none of them could ever fathom at that time. Looking back, Miryu had never met anyone like him, and until now, she realized where she and the Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu were similar: They would die to protect all those that they held dear.

"_Ao-sama, _she_ will be upset if you came home so dilapidated," _said one of his agents, who hid himself in a mask… His name was… Hann'ya, Miryu guessed, and she had not known who this woman was, that could hold Shinomori from attacking her further. Now, she knew that there would be a high possibility that it was Misao. What was her relationship with Shinomori? Had he shown her much love and care? If he loved her, why did he leave so willingly? And more importantly, where was Shinomori, currently?

As she and Kenshin ran away from the girl, they came across a wide chasm. There was no other way to cross it, unless they jumped. However, Kenshin had a brighter idea, there was a tree which had branches that stretched across the gorge, cutting the distance in half. Nodding to him, Miryu leapt onto said branch and successfully crossed it, leaving Kenshin, who did the deed in record time. It was only when the two of them were across safely that Misao returned to their sights.

"The game of tag is over de gozaran," Kenshin said to the girl sternly, hoping that she would at least see some sense in her actions. Miryu said nothing, her eyes of sapphire still fixed upon the young kunoichi. Misao had plenty of potential, that could not be denied, and given a few more years of training, there would be absolutely no doubt that she would be a formidable warrior. "Go home de gozaru yo…" Kenshin added, but Miryu put her hand up, and told him not to speak further. Misao obviously had something to say, and she would have her speak her mind first.

The girl acted to Miryu's prediction, and started to shout, "I am not done chasing the both of you yet!" She still had not seen the gorge, and when she did, she came into an utter halt. _How did they get across?_ She asked herself, but no answer came. In her persistence, she had not seen the branch that Kenshin and Miryu had used, seeing only the former hitokiri at the other side. With a furrow of her brow, she whipped out her kunai in an attempt to at least stop them from progressing further, but the both of them whipped out their katana, causing the kunai to fall into the chasm, just with the wind they had caused by their movements, leaving Misao astounded.

"Please, Misao, try to see reason!" Miryu pleaded. "We do not know the circumstances in which Shinomori and your guardian had raised you in, but the activities of the Oniwabanshuu will have endangered your life… That is why Shinomori left you in Kyoto with your guardian." Was a cold-blooded man like Aoshi capable of love, to care for a child like Misao? What was she thinking about; she was once a cold-blooded killer herself… "Give up, child, you will never find what you will seek…"

It seemed that Miryu's words had a great effect on the girl. In fact, it made her more desperate, and more intent on getting across. "How can you say that? How can you ask me to forget looking for the most important person in my life?" Miryu was a woman as well; could she not see through her own point of view? She did not care any longer. She knew that the two of them had information on Aoshi, and she would pursue them to the ends of the earth. Gathering her resolve, she did not care if she would fall into the chasm, for if she had just remained there, she would never get to wherever she wanted to be.

"Misao, don't try it!" she could hear Miryu's voice, but it was unheeded. With the most powerful leap she could muster, Misao found herself coming closer and closer to her targets, but started to descend midway. Without any hesitation, Kenshin and Miryu went for her, holding her on either side just as they had done the night previous. When their feet landed on solid rock, they jumped again, returning themselves to the other side of the chasm. "She is unconscious," Miryu commented with a smile. "We must wait until she wakes up…"

Kenshin agreed, and that was what they had did for the next few moments. "Had she always been like this?" he asked Miryu, who sighed and gave him a small nod as a reply. Miryu told him that she had mistaken the Emperor's summer retreat as Edo Castle, thinking that she would find Shinomori and his companions there.

Miryu could only smile at the girl. "She has so much spirit and fire," she told Kenshin. "Yet, she is so innocent, so free with her love… Shinomori Aoshi is a man of cold steel, and yet, she loves him unconditionally… For that alone, we cannot judge Shinomori with what experiences we have with him… She complicates matters, is that not what you are thinking, Kenshin?" They said that great minds think alike, and she knew that while she and Kenshin had their own little disagreements, they would always agree on certain issues.

Kenshin would have said something, but he was interrupted by Misao's awakening. "Why are you still here?" she asked them, and Miryu did not stop herself from giggling.

"Sessha must tell you that we might be attacked by unknown people on the way to Kyoto," Kenshin told Misao, "That is why we cannot allow anyone to travel with us, however, if you would pretend that we are strangers, and stay back a little, perhaps we would enjoy your company from afar de gozaru yo."

Immediately, Misao's expression brightened, and for the next few hours, they walked in silence.

* * *

Perhaps "silence" was not a word in Misao's dictionary, for she had started to talk non-stop sometime near afternoon. "Ao-sama is the best!" she exclaimed. "He was only 15 when he was made the Okashira, and he appears completely emotionless, even before those closest to him… Actually, he cares about all of us, and he would do anything to protect us…"

* * *

"_Who are you?" Shinomori Aoshi asked Miryu just after she had pulled her katana out of the chest cavity of one of the door-guards. His eyes, they were of ice and lightning, a pale blue rimmed with green, and with every step he took towards her, all she could see was resolve and power. She did not need to answer her question, though. "Blue eyes like sapphires, the word 'Ryu' on your neck… You are Tsubasa Battouryu…"_

_Miryu did not know who he was, but judging from his kodachi, she knew that he was an onmitsu, and a very skilled one at that… He was tall and well-muscled, at the top of his form, and from his gait, she knew that he was a leader. "Perhaps I should ask you that question… But never have I heard that ninja protected Edo Castle." More time… that was what her comrades needed to get the information they needed, and hopefully, there were no other ninja like this man was. _

_With a bow, courteous and quick, the ninja told her, "I am Shinomori Aoshi of the Oniwabanshuu, and I suggest that you and your Ishin dogs leave before my men and I are forced to kill you." She was a woman after all, and he would never attack a woman. However, Miryu left no inclination that she was going to leave. _

"_Indeed, if you are here to kill them, then I am here to protect them. Draw your weapons, Shinomori, we shall see who has the victory here," Miryu replied, an amber light engulfing her sapphire eyes, the bell on her katana ringing clearly as she stood in a battou-jutsu stance.

* * *

_

Miryu could not remember how many times their weapons had clashed, but she did remember how short their duel was, because three of the six men sent to steal a certain document emerged from the designated archive, and she left with them just after Hann'ya stopped Shinomori from attacking further.

However, her silent thoughts were interrupted by a sound that came from behind her, Misao and Kenshin, and the former stopped her chatter with no need of instruction. "Misao-dono, stay back de gozaru yo," Kenshin warned Misao while Miryu motioned that she would inspect where the sound came from, and Kenshin joined her soon after.

"Hey, don't leave me alone here, I can help!" Misao insisted, coming to a clearing, where a man lay slumped against a tree. He was holding a small boy in his arms, his body crusted with blood, which Miryu had judged to be his own. There were many cuts all over that man's body, particularly on his back, where to slashes were particularly deep, as if made by a strange weapon which she had never seen before. But it did not matter, the man was dying, and the child he held, unconscious.

With great difficulty, the man said, "Please… help us…" He coughed blood, and started to look at the three of them. " Eiji… My village… Shishio…" With that, he died. They guessed that the boy in his arms was Eiji.

Kenshin looked at Miryu, whose expression had changed with the speed of light. "Miryu, are you alright?" he asked, and thankfully, she nodded.

"I can sense him…" she told him. "I can sense the fire… I will never forget that…" Her encounter with Shishio ran through her mind again and again as Kenshin and Misao buried the man, and she just stood at the edge of the clearing, looking at the village. She could sense not only the presence of that deranged sociopath, but also the misery and the fear surrounding that village, and she knew that there was a high possibility that Shishio would be there. He had to be there… she was not afraid of him, she was never afraid, but there was still something about him that stirs a great unrest in her heart. His kiss, although fleeting, had been a haunting shadow in her nightmares, and she wanted to escape it.

"Miryu-san?" Misao asked, placing her hand on the older woman's shoulder. "What's the matter? Who is this Shishio?"

Miryu looked at Misao and said, "Shishio Makoto is a man of malice and great power, he wishes to take over Japan, and burn the government to the ground so he can be our new leader…" It was an outcome that she would fight against until her death. A man like him would never be a fit ruler… "He is the man Kenshin and I are tasked to destroy, and he is the man who wants us dead. That is why, Misao, we refused to take you with us in the first place… But it matters not now, we are already in his grasp, and now, we must fight to save this village as well…"

They were about to leave, with the child in Kenshin's arms until Eiji woke up. "Who are you?" he asked them, but before he could answer, he saw a mound not far away from them, where a notched katana stood erect as a marker. That katana had been his brother's…

He screamed.


	8. Village

The child's scream was piercing if not horrendously heartbreaking. Miryu looked at Eiji and did nothing, for there was nothing she could have done. Was this how Enishi could have felt when he saw she and Kenshin kill Tomoe by mischance? She had never seen him ever since then, and she judged him to be dead for all that experience was worth. However, she was pulled back to the present when Kenshin started asking Eiji some questions, and to her surprise, those answers proved to be very valuable indeed.

With a deep breath, Eiji calmed himself down and said, "Shishio's followers came to our village two years ago, and killed all the police stationed here, no matter how many were sent… In the end, the government just abandoned us…" Miryu was sure that Kenshin looked at her, demanding a possible explanation, but she just shrugged, not that she would know of these matters anyways. Granted, she did not know that the village even existed.

"Nonsense, perhaps the police are biding their time to stage a war on Shishio's men!" Misao speculated, another hint of her sheer innocence. However, her words were interrupted by Eiji, who started to speak again with increased anger, incensed with grief.

"Look at this map!" he shouted, showing them said map, pointing to a spot in the forest that they were in. "This is the lastest map my brother got from Tokyo, but our village is not on it at all! When he saw this, he immediately came back to save us, but… but…"

Miryu put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Boy, we will avenge your brother and your village," her sapphire eyes, Eiji could see, was now rimmed with amber, cold and menacing as she looked towards the village. "We have… old scores to be settled with Shishio Makoto. Trust us," When she returned her gaze to him, the amber was gone, and there was only warmth, an unbelievable change in mere seconds.

Kenshin nodded, and said, "You do not need to swing your brother's katana, Eiji-dono, we will lend you ours de gozaru yo," And before he and Miryu left for the village, he turned to Misao and said, "Misao-dono, you will stay will Eiji here," and gave the young kunoichi no chance to protest.

* * *

Shingetsu village was the name of that village, and yet, it did not seem like one. It was empty, and not a soul was visible. There was no laughter there, and the air of death and sorrow was rank, filling the place like a dark cloud. And right at the center of the village, admist the short, wooden homes, were two corpses, hanged to death, by the looks of it, and before that, they received many cuts to their bodies. "A man and a woman…" Miryu commented softly after uttering a silent prayer. "Please, do not let it be…"

Before she could even speak his name, Eiji screamed once again. This time, it was his parents. And immediately, a group of men, clad in black, quickly surrounded Kenshin and Miryu, all holding weapons. "Outsiders shall not leave alive," their leader said, earning a scoff from Miryu, who did not speak any further. True, she was angered, but she could see that Kenshin was even more enraged. He had always been so.

"Why did you kill them?" Kenshin demanded. He even dropped using the "de gozaru" figure, which led Miryu to really feel the impact of his anger. "They did nothing…"

"Their sons escaped the village, and Senkaku-sama punished them as a warning. We hung them here as a lesson to all…" came the leader's reply. A wiser man would have not given such an answer, but if he were a wiser man, he would not be the head of some weakling thugs under Shishio. And to prove his stupidity, he even had the audacity to continue. "This village is a prize that Shishio-sama has won from the government pigs, by order of Shishio-sama, all outsiders must pay the price of death."

Miryu was standing back-to-back with Kenshin, and said, "I'd say we leave none standing. How many would you prefer alive, though, that is the question."

A cold smirk came with Kenshin's remark. "It is up to you, Miryu."

* * *

Ten years… It had been ten years since Kenshin and Miryu fought like this, close to one another, making short work of men larger and more in number than they were. It was ten years since blood rained when they were by each other's side, when the twin dragons of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu soared the battlefield together. Misao stood with Eiji not far from them and watched in awe. She knew that the two of them were good, but not _that_ good! She did not know if Aoshi could even beat them, with their skills. But as she stared in awe, she did not notice the stray soldier that was charging towards herself and the other towards Eiji.

Although she relished of relieving the many battles past with Kenshin in real time, Miryu simply had no time to think after she had pulled her katana out of her last victim. She could feel the Ki of two more, but she could not judge where they were. When she looked up, she saw the two children cowering over each other, and the two men that were about to kill them. There was no time, even if her and Kenshin's speed easily outmatched the common human. They were simply too far away to be reached in time…

If she had realized before that they were in deep trouble, Misao would have defended herself, but for some reason, her feet could not be moved from the ground… She could have sworn that her life, however short, flashed through her eyes… Then, the sound of a gunshot was heard, followed by the pained scream of a man being cut in two was heard. And right before her, was a tall man, with eyes of gold, wielding a ninhontou, while Eiji saw another man, shorter in stature, a gaijin, by the looks of him. Yes, a gaijin, with a gun.

"What are you doing here, you two should be in Kyoto by now!" the tall man called towards Kenshin and Miryu, while the gaijin walked smoothly to her and kissed her just as she was cleaning her katana, leaving Kenshin to come out with some clever retort.

Heaving a slight sigh at his companion and her husband, he said, "I should be asking you the same question, Saito. Why are you and Algren-dono here?"

Saito scoffed. "Doing our job. We were in Kyoto when this gaijin came with Algren asking him to bring him here for photographs of the hot springs here."

"Is Graham here?" Miryu asked Algren, her sapphire eyes growing wide. "Do you not know that Shishio is here, or has Saito neglected to tell you that?"

Algren silenced her, putting a finger to her lips. "Well, our dear friend has found some interesting news about your dear friend that I thought we should share with you…" He then turned towards what seemed to be an alley and shouted, "Mister Graham, you can come out now."

Misao had seen a few gaijin in her lifetime, but to see two in one afternoon, and one of them kissing Miryu so openly… It was too much to take! "Wait! Miryu-san, Himura, who are these people?"

However, before Miryu or Kenshin could explain, Saito began to calculate in his brain, judging by his perceptions of the women around Kenshin, apart from his pseudo-niece, of course. "Who is this… itachi?" he asked, angering her to no end.

"Do not worry, Misao-chan, he is our ally, and I am afraid, he does not have any sunny disposition at all…" Miryu told her young friend, and introduced her to Algren and Graham. "And dear Graham, what information do you have for us."

Graham gave a nervous chuckle and looked around, gathering Kenshin, Algren, Miryu and Saito in a huddle, speaking in fluent Japanese. "I was in Shanghai when got wind of some triad leader selling a huge, expensive weapon… The underworld had news that it was for a rebellion in Japan…"

A weapon? What weapon would Shishio require? It was not time for questions, and the important thing was to get Eiji's parents down so that they could be buried and properly respected. Miryu was about the cut the ropes that hung Eiji's father when they were surrounded, once again. But this time, it was the other villagers.

"We cannot allow you to take those bodies down!" an elderly commanded. "Senkaku will kill us if they are set down before his permission!" She did not heed those words, and nor did Kenshin. Within seconds, the bodies were on the ground, despite the villager's protests. "You would have killed us all, you murderers!"

There was no other voice but those of the cursing villagers after that. A cart was quickly located, and the small company retreated to the hill before the entrance of the village. "Why wouldn't the government help the village, Miryu-san?" Misao asked the older woman. "Surely they would have sent more men…"

"No politician wishes to share Ohkubo's fate, nor would any other leader in the army… The politicians, after all, are only human… They are afraid that if they retaliate, Shishio would kill them. That is why they sent Kenshin, Saito and I in to do the job… Before other places like this village falls into the hands of Shishio."

Algren then said, "Not only that, the diplomats are beginning to worry about another revolt. They would pull their investments out of Japan…"

"Which would cripple the economy once more," Graham added. They were lucky, very, very lucky that Katsumoto's rebellion went without a sound. Before long, they began to dug graves for Eiji's family. "You know, this Shishio character is indeed a very shady one to start with, who knows what he has in his arsenal…"

"As you said, Graham, a weapon which could only be obtained from Shanghai's triads," Miryu summed. "That man will never cease to hound Japan and the politicians unless he is stopped… And somehow I feel that our troubles would not end, even after he is dead."

Algren wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder and said, "Well, look on the bright side, Miryu, at least he right before us, on a silver platter." While on the way to Shingetsu from Kyoto, Saito had told him and Graham as much as his intelligence forces knew about Shishio, and although it came to almost nothing, in the very least, he knew more about this new enemy, like the fact that he was touted to be as good as Kenshin and Miryu were in terms of combat.

She looked at the children and said, "They were supposed to have known an age of peace, especially Eiji… Well, then, shall we seek out the sociopath? I am dying for some real exercise."

Saito nodded. "Yes, we should go. And Algren, I think you would find it interesting if you came with us. It would show you the psyche of a true madman," he told Algren, virtually ignoring Graham, Misao and Eiji, who wanted to follow as well.

"Misao-dono, Eiji needs someone at this moment, to calm him down de gozaru yo," Kenshin reasoned, while turning to Graham. "As for you, Graham-dono, you had better stay with them, in case we might need more information de gozaran."

At least Graham looked resigned to his fate. Heck, he witnessed an entirely bloody battle without moving an inch. There was more to fear than a simple person who blackmailing the most powerful people of Japan, right?

* * *

The three warriors were greeted by a boy when they approached Shishio Makoto's manor in Shingetsu village. "Welcome to Shishio-san's abode, Saito Hajime, Himura Battousai, Algren Battouryu and Nathan Algren, the gaijin. Shishio-san bids you welcome."


	9. Shishio Makoto

"Welcome, Himura Battousai, Saito Hajime, Algren Battouryu and Nathan Algren," Seta Soujirou greeted the four warriors who were facing him, with stern expressions on their faces. Truth be told, Saito was rather surprised that Shishio Makoto would employ such a young boy in his service. However, it could not be denied that he could sense a strong flare of Ki from the boy, and even the American was agitated by his presence... perhaps Miryu's husband was not that big of a bumbling idiot, after all.

Kenshin was the first to speak. "Saito, be careful de gozaru yo," he told Saito, "He is the one who killed Ohkubo de gozaran," There was no mistake about it, and even Miryu had confirmed of his skills, although still they remained hidden. This boy, he was an enigma. Even until now, he could not discover what his motives were, and why was he serving under Shishio. And that smile... it seemed to be that it is the only thing that he knew how to do, apart from being a killer, of course.

Soujirou heard Kenshin's words and immediately defended himself. "Maa, maa, Himura-san, I am just a guide!" he replied, showing Kenshin his empty hands. "See, I am not even armed!" Miryu rolled her eyes, and she knew that the child's feigned innocence would be anything but true. After several seconds, his sheepish laughter faded, and his smile resumed. "Please, come in, Shishio-san is anxiously waiting for your arrival."

Thus, they followed Soujirou into the manor, which was at least twice as large as that of Miryu and Algren's, not that they cared about it. Once they arrived in the central room, all they could see was a man's shape, draped in what seems to be layers and layers of bandages, seated upon soft, velvet cushions, with a woman, voluptuous and beautiful beside him, serving him Sake. The man's eyes were red like the setting sun, his skin, as it could be seen surrounding his eyes and his lips, were charred black and red... He was tall, and as his fine bone structure revealed, he was an ultimately handsome man before his mutilation. Miryu looked at him, and she remembered fire, and the stench of burning human flesh... She remembered those eyes well, and the more she looked at the man the more she knew that her assumptions were true.

This man was Shishio Makoto. This was the man who killed, Iizuka, the traitor to the Choushu-han, this was the man who killed countless others in the name of the Ishin-Ishishi, and this was the man who tried to capture her in his grasp, this was the man who had been threatening to bring Japan into chaos and darkness once more, after ten years of peace. This was the man that Miryu knew, she and Kenshin had to destroy, no matter what the price was.

"Shishio Makoto?" Kenshin asked, and he received an affirmative answer. His voice, as Miryu had accurately described, was smooth and effective. There was an air of charisma around the man, and nothing more. One who wished to end an age of peace regardless of the cost, so that he could be the leader of a new order, or so he had thought. He looked at Miryu, who hid her face beneath the fringe of her hair, a hand tightly holding that of Algren's, and knew that he was not wrong in his assumption.

Saito, however, enjoyed the fact that Shishio had served himself on a silver platter for them. "Any of us could have leapt into the center of the room and killed him on the spot, or even Algren could have shot him..." he commented to Soujirou, regarding Shishio's seating arrangement. "Aren't you afraid for your master?"

Chuckling, Soujirou replied, "Well, the rest are not as dishonorable as you are, Saito-san... You would most certainly launch a surprise attack, wouldn't you?" Although Saito seemed like he did not care for Soujirou's remark, the policeman was actually shocked that the boy had seen through him, which was a very rare occurance. Well, this would be a rather tough predicament, Saito deemed. At least things were getting more interesting.

* * *

Simon Graham usually was rather happy looking at the sidelines when dangerous things was going on. Often, he was able to be at the right places at exactly the right times, which was why he was so useful as an informant. However, his ability to survive even the greatest of tragedies (not on his part, of course), was also due to that very same fact, but this time, curiousity and concern got the better of him. Looking at the children, he asked, "Hey, aren't you going in there?"

After hearing those words, Misao just looked at him and blinked. She had thought that grownups had more sense than to risk their necks so blindly like going into the enemy territory when they were clearly outnumbered. It was more than enough that Eiji wanted to go in there as well, still thinking that he had to avenge his family. "Are you out of your minds?" she asked them, "Do you know how many men Shishio would have in that place?"

"I don't care!" Eiji exclaimed. "My family is dead, and I have no reason to live any longer!" Graham looked at the boy and sighed. As an Englishman, born in a time of relative peace, and having lived a life of privilage, he would have deemed this boy to be stupid, and outright barbaric to seek another man's blood in return of the death of his family. But given his travels, given his many experiences, Graham knew that this child did no wrong in wanting vangeance, although it was not the correct train of thought. Not even the wisest of adults would think better, anyways.

The boy needed to find out on his own, that sometimes, vangeance was not all that he needed, and the only way to do that, was to enter the mouth of the lion. "Well now, we must find a way inside, musn't we?" he asked Eiji, who looked at him with shock. "I would not like the four of those so-called warriors have all the fun."

Reluctantly, Misao finally agreed, knowing that no good would come to this. Given her ninja training, she knew better than to traipse into enemy territory. "Alright, I'll come with you," she said, giving up. Really now, she would expect someone like Graham to have more sense... "At least someone has to make sure that you two don't get yourselves killed."

"Yes, yes, Misao-chan, do protect us," Graham replied with a twinkle in his eye. _Ah, this little girl was just like Miryu when she was her age_, he mused. It was just that Miryu had killed hundreds and hundreds of men in those days, and her soul was even more jaded than an old warrior's.

* * *

Inside, Kenshin had enough of the formalities that they were going through. Shishio even had the audacity to imply that he was slightly disappointed at Miryu's poor choice of a husband, when said husband was right in front of him. "Enough small talk de gozaru yo," he said, clenching his fist beside him. "Why have you taken over this place when you are targeting the entire country de gozaru ka?"

Shishio chuckled. It was the same laughter that made Miryu cringe ten years ago, and it was the same laughter that did the exact same thing to her now. "The hot springs, Battousai, the hot springs," he replied smoothly. "A man of my condition would benefit greatly from the waters of the hot springs, but I was afraid that others would see me without these bandages..."

The very thought of the amount of dead policemen, the bitterness of the villagers resulting from Shishio's tyranny, and the lives of Eiji's family fleeted into Kenshin's mind. It was because of the hot springs that Shishio had chosen to destroy this area so much that it no longer existed in the maps? That answer was enough to get him into a battle-stance, causing Shishio to laugh even further.

"My, my, the rumors are true, Battousai," Shishio snickered. "You are indeed a very serious man. You need to learn to take a joke."

Miryu neared Kenshin and whispered, "Do not let him get to you, Kenshin. We might fall into his trap if we are not careful enough." Although she had met their enemy only once before, that single encounter was more than enough for her to know that he was a dangerous man, that no word of his could be trusted. This was a man who could charm anyone and everyone into his bidding, into doing things that they would not consent to. "One sudden move, and all of us might be dead."

Catching the almost silent conversation between the two students of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, Shishio said, "Miryu, if there is anything to be said, why not say it openly?" She stopped her whispering, but glared at him with sapphire eyes rimmed with amber, the very eyes that drew him to her in the first place, after watching her fight from afar during the days of the Bakamatsu. "I shall be honest with all of you, this place, it is an excellent stronghold for the Toukai region, that is why I chose to build my influence here. The hot springs are only an added advantage."

"So, with this base, you would seek to take revenge on those who gave you those bandages?" Algren asked. He was a specialist in strategy, and he knew, that the Toukai region was far enough to be detected by the government in Tokyo, yet, close enough to hound the politicians slowly, day in and day out. Japan had been his home only more than a year, but already he knew her as if he was a son born from her womb.

Shishio clicked his tongue. He had never expected for the gaijin to speak so fluently in Japanese. "Captain Nathan Algren, you were a man in the military like many of us in America, and we all want the same woman, I thought that we could be on the same page," he replied. "And to answer your question, no, I rather like to think that I would thank the men who gave me my bandages. They have taught me many things, like, 'if you trust, you will be betrayed' , 'you will die if you are careless'and more importantly, 'a good man is never far from a beautiful woman... er... women." To Miryu's distaste, he looked affectionately towards the woman beside him and her.

It was a good thing that her pseudo-uncle interrupted him, Miryu thought. It would not be long before she would irrationally try to kill him like Kenshin almost did just moments ago. "If that is all that you're doing, why don't you tone it down a little?" Saito asked. "I'm tired running all over Japan hunting you down."

"All of us survived the Bakamatsu, Captain Algren survived a Civil War. Why cant you understand?" Shishio asked them, with a tone of disappointment in his words. "We all thought that we fought for ideals of justice during the Bakumatsu, and all of us thought that we were right in our own ways, when it was really just an excuse to overthrow the government of the day to set up a new one, someone has to rise from the ashes to lead the new age."

"But that man is not you!" Miryu spat. "It will never be you!"

"Who, then, Miryu?" Shishio asked her. "That boy of yours on the throne whom you served for ten years? Or the musty old men that rule the country on his behalf? If you forgot, they were the ones who tried to kill me, and they failed!" By now, the amber in Miryu's eyes had totally replaced sapphire, and Shishio could see that she was angered beyond belief. "When my wounds were healed, I tried to come out again, but the Meiji age had already settled in and changes were made, to what end? Those who were granted minor offices thought that they had gained power after generations of servitude to the Samurai and to the Shogun, turning the government I had killed for into one that is weak and corrupt, how can you stand watching this? Look at our leaders now, they do not dare to set a single soldier against me in the fear of looking weak towards the Western powers."

Algren scoffed. "Believe me, those Western powers are actually more frightened of you than you are of them." The year before, the Americans had agree to send Algren over to train the Japanese army because Japan would open a new world of influence to their own country. If they succeeded, they would be hired to train more armies from more countries, and they would all buy American weapons... It was all the other way around.

"It doesn't matter now," Shishio shot back. "If it takes violence to solve this issue, than so be it."

However, it was a solution that Kenshin was not happy with. "And what about those who are living their lives in peace and freedom? They will be casualties in your pursuits de gozaran!"

"Whether if it was the Shogun, or even you, Shishio, they would not have a voice under either of you, even if Japan is a strong nation. In these times of the Meiji, the people know that they have the power, and they will be able to choose their own leaders to serve them," Miryu reasoned, like Kenshin, falling into a stance that seemed so natural to the both of them. "You cannot rob them of their voice and their rights to peace even if you seek your own justice."

Soujirou clapped at the battle of words. There was no doubt that this exhchange would result in a clash of katana. "What about you, Saito-san?" he asked Saito. "What do you think?"

Tipping some ash out of his cigarette on the tatami floor, Saito crossed his arms and leant against the wall. "I am not so fluent in pretty words like the two of them," he told Soujirou. "But, as things are going, I cannot help but realize that it is my fate to fight against Shishio."

"Really?" Shishio asked in return. "It really does not matter if we fought here or not. I had planned to do it in Kyoto, the city of flowers... But still, if it is a fight that you want, it will be a fight that you get." Thus, he tapped the floor with his hand lightly, and all of a sudden, a giant of a man leapt out, creating a hole. The man was rather inhumanly tall, and bore axe-blades in each hand.

"Senkaku, the ruler of Shingetsu will be your opponent!" the man roared, his eyes fixed on Kenshin and Miryu.


	10. Adversary

"Miryu… Kenshin!" Algren shouted when the almost-giant of a man Senkaku crushed the former hitokiri towards the wooden walls of Shishio's manor. However, when the dust from the blow had subsided, it was revealed that the two of them had blocked his blow with their katana, leaving two great kinks in each of his axe-blades. Relief immediately washed over him, while Saito berated him for having so little faith in his own wife.

With precise, twin movements, the two of them darted to either side to recover from the blow, and to re-sheath their weapons for yet another battou-jutsu attack, or so it seemed to be. "Sessha has given Sessha's word de gozaran," Kenshin told Senkaku. "Sessha will destroy you before Sessha destroys Shishio!" Blow after blow was rained upon him and Miryu, but two of them were always able to parry his attacks, darting behind him whenever they arrive at a dead end.

Senkaku looked amused, that his enemies would not dare face him in outright combat, but still, he marveled at their speed and agility. "So, it is true that Battousai and Battouryu are as fast as the eye can see!" he exclaimed, "However, where physical strength is concerned, I have the upper hand!" Once more, he swiped both his axe-blades at the two of them, but they leapt above his head, landing behind him. Sensing that Kenshin was going to strike next, he quickly turned to the right, and started to give chase again.

As Saito watched this exchange, he could see many things, more importantly, literally how synchronized Kenshin and Miryu's attacks were. In the days of the Bakumatsu, the two of them were among the most powerful warriors, blessed with supreme speed and resilience, this Senkaku would not outlast them in such a flimsy excuse for a battle indeed. He remembered clearly that not even a full regiment of Miburo behind him could defeat the two of them, and to face them both singly, it would be utter suicide. There was no need to communicate, nor was there any need for intricate signage between them. They literally could read each others' mind, something that Shishio direly wanted to his advantage.

* * *

Outside, Simon Graham really swore that he needed to lose a few pounds. A few more steps slower, and he was sure that Shishio's thugs could have noticed him, Misao and Eiji creeping about the property. However, some thugs were just needed to be crossed. With the mansion being so vast, there was a very real possibility that they would get lost within its confines. They needed a guard to get them in.

"So, what are we going to do?" Eiji asked, looking around the bush they were hiding behind. "Any bright ideas?"

Graham grimaced. He was very sure that he would be roasted like a pig over an open fire by either Shishio or Miryu if they were discovered. "Whatever you do, just be sure that you do not take me as the President of the United States," he told the children, reminiscing on the escapade last year when he, Miryu and Algren went to save Katsumoto from suicide.

"We can do that?" Misao asked, but suddenly remembered that a person as prolific as Shishio would certainly have known how the President of the United States looked like. "Still, we need to find a way to get in though!"

And then, chance came. They were noticed by the guards outside the door, and immediately, Misao began to take them down one by one. "Who are you three?" one of the guards asked, but Misao quickly delivered a kick below his jaw, silencing him.

Just as they thought that all of them were unconscious, one remained, and was prepared to raise a whistle to alert more of his comrades. Sadly for him, he did not notice that Eiji was holding his katana level to the man's neck. "Lead us to Senkaku and we will let you live."

The man had no choice but to comply.

* * *

"How long do you think that you can avoid me, you fools?" Senkaku asked Miryu and Kenshin when the both of them darted behind him once again. The look on Shishio's face was not pretty at all, not that it was a sight to begin with. Just a little longer, and this brute will go down like an injured beast before a hunter, just a little more…

From the sidelines, Algren began to see through their strategy. The way they allowed themselves to be cornered, the way they took turns to lead Senkaku to turn on his right knee, it was all a strategy. This way, it would put undue stress on Senkaku, given his weight, which would give in any moment. And as an added advantage, Shishio Makoto would have no chance of deciphering their technique at all. Yes, that must be it.

"Saito-san, why don't you help them?" Soujirou asked Saito, who released a puff of cigarette smoke. "If I'm not wrong, Battouryu-san could be said as your niece…"

Scoffing, Saito said, "Miryu can very well take care of herself, but it is Shishio that I'm worried about. All this while, he has been speaking with a charismatic flourish, and now, look at him, he is as sour was a lemon." What the Miburo said next was enough to conclude that Algren's theory was utterly correct. "The two of them will lead Senkaku to a road of self-destruction."

It was time, Miryu deemed, and for the first time throughout the battle, she looked at Kenshin, who nodded back at her. Leaping back to their former places, they watched Senkaku's right knee turn awkwardly, and give in, rendering him immobile after falling onto the floor. "My leg!" he shouted. "My leg! It's broken!"

"When you moved, you did not lose any of your speed, and when you turned, it gave your leg undue pressure," Algren said, revealing to Shishio subtly that he too, was not to be taken lightly. "And at the same speed that the three of you were moving, your weight was greater, and hence, more damaging to yourself."

Senkaku did not accept that fact. "It is ridiculous, nothing like this has ever happened before! I am in top physical shape!"

Throwing away his cigarette butt, Saito scolded, "Ahou, when Battousai and Miryu turned, they gradually increased their speed, that is why you were trapped under the impression that you were just as fast… Baka, you killed ninety-nine people, and the hundredth is yourself."

"I never thought that there was so many sides to a battle like that!" Soujirou marveled, not noticing that the shoji door behind them opened slowly, allowing three pairs of eyes to peer through the opening.

Standing above Senkaku, Miryu turned to Kenshin and said, "We had a deal, Kenshin. Your values will not overcome that of my own…" As she said those words, she turned the cutting-edge of her katana towards the man, ready to kill him at any moment. Looking at him with sheer pity in her sapphire eyes, she said, "It has been fun indeed, although we hardly even broke a drop of sweat…"

Before Miryu swung her katana to decapitate him, Senkaku raised his head and begged for mercy. "I didn't really kill ninety-nine people!" he shouted, but was interrupted by Kenshin, who said that the death of Eiji's parents and brother was by his doing. After saying those words, Miryu began to strike once again.

"Senkaku," Shishio's voice cut through the room. "I have never expected you to win this fight, but if you would not draw even one of Battousai and Miryu's techniques, I will kill you personally, and it would be far merciless than what she is about to do."

Indeed, fear for the master was mostly what drove minions to do their bidding, for Senkaku immediately rose and lunged at Kenshin and Miryu once again. This time, however, it was only Kenshin who attacked. "Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryu-Sho-Sen!" Kenshin shouted, delivering a blow below Senkaku's chin, leaping from below. He had shown the brute mercy, and Miryu knew that one day, his mercy will one day come back to haunt them.

* * *

Every time they see Kenshin and Miryu fight, it just gets better and better, even for Graham, who had known them from the time of the Bakumatsu. "Well, don't just hide there, Graham," Algren said, opening the door a little wider, allowing the three of them to tumble out. "We knew that you were there all along." Somehow, something inside him told him that the three of them must have had a great adventure of their own.

* * *

"Battousai, that attack… Ryu-Sho-Sen, as you called it, if you had used the cutting edge, would you have killed Senkaku?" Shishio asked, with a raised eyebrow (if they could see it, that is). Kenshin said nothing, but nodded. "You are a fool. I had heard how you have become a rurouni with no desire to kill, now that I know that it is true. You are worse than Miryu, who has become a government watchdog like Saito…" After saying thus, he gestured to woman beside him, "Come, Yumi, my love, we shall depart. This place is so boring that I do not wish to fight." Yumi smiled, and dutifully removed the screen behind them, revealing a hidden stairway. "Come to Kyoto after you are once again the hitokiri you were, and perhaps, I shall decide whether to fight with you and Miryu…"

Kenshin had had enough. "You would leave, after all this?" he demanded. But Miryu just put her hand on his tsuba, saying that there was no point to force a coward into battle. Instead, the chance was given to Soujirou, along with Shishio's katana.

"And so, you really can fight," Saito said, looking at the boy, who politely stated that he would be facing both Kenshin and Miryu at the same time. In their battle with Senkaku, they had no chance to determine his strength as an enemy, and did so using their Ki, succeeding only in making Misao and Eiji sit down from their standing positions. "Its useless, I've tried doing that when you were busy with that brute. Even an ahou like Algren noticed that earlier."

While Algren was still a stranger to the concept of "Ki", he knew that there was no spark of energy that gave Soujirou away. The boy was an utter enigma to begin with. Without wasting any more time, Kenshin and Miryu got into their stances, and surprisingly, Soujirou did the same.

"If it will be Battou-jutsu, then I shall use the same," he told them with his customary smile. "I shall show no quarter, if you don't mind."

Then, it all happened in a flash. There was no set technique, but all three swords met in the center between them, and seconds later, a edge of a katana flew out. "The sakabattou!" Algren exclaimed, much to Soujirou's elation.

"Well, that's it…" he chirped happily, until Saito interrupted him.

"Yes it is, if all parties are unable to fight, its called a 'draw'".

With one look at his katana, Soujirou fond that it was shattered beyond the state of repair, while Miryu's had a greatest notch where their katana met. All three katana were rendered useless. "How come Battouryu One-chan's katana is only notched?"

Although Miryu found it cute that Soujirou would called her "One-chan", she still regarded him as a deadly adversary. "My katana is not made from tamahagane (carbonized steel), but from titanium, it was my mother's."

"Ah, indeed, I forgot that you were the Shinsen-Gumi's Tetsu-Rou-Jou's daughter," Soujirou replied. "But it does not matter, I have to get to Shisho-san, and the both of you need to replace your weapons. We shall fight again until then."

Miryu nodded, and smiled as he left, before moving to Kenshin and gave him the broken edge of his sakabattou. "Do you remember that Shakku Arai promised us new katana when ours have broken?" she asked him, "Do not worry, we will obtain new weapons, and we will get through this together."


	11. Continuation

"_Your mother made Gatotsu famous amongst the ranks of the Shinsen-Gumi_,_"_ Miryu's grandfather once told her long after they had reconciled. _"She and Saito were the ones who formulated it, you know, and let me tell you, the two of them were just like you and Himura Battousai..._" How convinient it was that her and Kenshin's katana would be damaged just like that. Perhaps it had very little to do with Soujirou's skill level, and more to the fact that the force of all three katana clashing upon one another, and perhaps it was just the time to change her weapon... After all, it was her mothers, and she had been using it for the last fifteen years...

Algren looked at his wife as her sapphire gaze was still transfixed upon the notch in her katana, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" the American asked, receiving a smile from her, one that he knew was a sign that she was totally distraught on the inside. She had a habit of acting like that, and he had known that ever since they started working together. And under these circumstances, he knew that it was best that he kept his silence. She would be back as a her old self in no time.

"My mother was given a titanium katana when she served as a samurai," Miryu told him, "And my grandfather once told me that it bore a dual meaning. One would be that since titanium was not tamahagane, her katana was imperfect, and she was still not officially a samurai, because she is a woman. Another would be that she was given a strange and high honor... But this katana is what made her so famous, the Testu-Rou-Jou of the Shinsen-Gumi..."

He silenced her with a finger and said, "But you shouldn't be so worried, after all, you were fighting for the Ishin-Ishishi," Finally, he elicited a small giggle from her that he knew that it was genuine. "Besides, if you are so worried, perhaps you could keep your mother's bell when you get a new katana."

Indeed, it made her smile even more. "Nathan, you always have the best ideas," she told him, giving him a light peck on the cheek. In fact, she forgot how much she had missed him ever since they had left Tokyo. There was once a time when she thought that he was a lone, stoic soul. How much was revealed to her since then... "We will have to get to Kyoto in all due speed if we want to replace our weapons, am I right Kenshin?"

The red headed companion of hers nodded with a smile as well. "Algren-dono, Miryu is very lucky to have you as a husband de gozaran," he said, "If you were another man, Miryu would have beaten you flat de gozaru yo." With that, he was punched into the wall by her, leaving Saito to give her an appreciative puff of smoke.

"I always wanted to do that, thank you, Miryu," Saito added as Kenshin swaggered here and there dizzily, obviously trying to recover from that heavy impact.

Graham, now being used to such exchanges only managed to sigh, wondering how many more beatings from Miryu that Kenshin could survive before they actually face Shishio and the boy once again. Looking to his side, his train of thought was being disturbed by the sound of a katana being picked up, only to find that Eiji was now holding his brother's katana towards Senkaku.

Luckily, Saito was able to stop him. "Ahou, killing in the sake of getting revenge has been outlawed in 1873," he told the child. "Besides, you cannot kill him just yet, we need to question him for information. And after that, he would surely receive the death penalty, which is far more punishment than being killed when he is unconscious."

"Shut up!" Eiji shouted. "My family can't rest until he is dead!"

Kenshin smiled, and put his hand over Eiji's. "The dead do not desire vengeance, but the happiness of those who live de gozaru yo," he told the boy. "One day, these small hands will grow big, and you will be happy because you have not bowed down to the urge of staining them with blood, and nor will you be willingly oppressed by those more powerful than you are."

"You will learn, Eiji, that most of the battles you face, is not about death and blood," Miryu added, kneeling next to the child. "But how important it is, to live for those that you love. I can understand how you feel. I was orphaned by the Bakufu, as you were orphaned by these Meiji times, but no matter what happens, as long as you are alive, your voice will travel to those of power, and you will be heard, I assure that."

With those words, Eiji released his brother's katana from his hands, and started to cry. Those were not tears of pain, nor suffering, but that of closure. "You will be proud of yourself that you didn't do it, kiddo," Algren said, giving Eiji a nudge on his elbow as they all had ascended the hill that overlooked Shingetsu village, alive with activity once again.

"Perhaps I will, Algren-san, but I don't know whether I'll ever forgive them," Eiji said, "But maybe I won't have to..."

Graham looked at the boy and said, "I say, why don't you come with me?" he asked. "I own a little shop selling good old English tea in Kyoto, and I know a friend who will be absolutely willing to take care of you once you have cooled off and know what to do with your future..."

Algren, Kenshin, Miryu and Misao did not notice the blatant change on Saito's usual cold, calculating expression, rather because it came and went almost immediately. "Yes, Tokio will take good care of him, without a doubt," he added, ignoring Graham's wink.

"Saito, how would you know Graham's friend?" Miryu asked.

"Well, my dear, she's Saito's wife, naturally," Graham said before Saito even had a chance to explain, an answer that brought an untold amount of shock to them all, Miryu including.

The other four formed a huddle, headed by Misao. "W...w... wife?" she asked. "That man has a wife?"

Kenshin took another sly look at Saito and said to the others, "Only a bosatsu (Bodhisatva) will be able to put up with the likes of him..."

"Since when did I ever have a pseudo-aunt?" Miryu asked, raising an eyebrow. Of all her years knowing Saito, he never even mentioned that he had a wife. And for all she was concerned of, he was never a husbandly-man to start with. "What is this world coming to?"

However, Algren was able to see some logic to Saito's marital status. "Who knows? She could be as devious as he is..."

"If you four ahou have finished gossiping about me and my wife, I would like to add that Eiji would be left in capable hands," Saito said, breaking their huddle with little effort. "Battousai, you will have to go straight to Kyoto with Miryu, and make sure that you become the hitokiri you once were. Facing Shishio Makoto as a rurouni would only quicken your defeat, mark my words."

Kenshin nodded, but said nothing else. Miryu, on the other hand, was sounding very confident. "Don't listen to that old wolf," she told him just as Saito left with Eiji. "I'm sure that you will find your own way to beat Shishio, and if you have forgotten, I'm still here, no matter what."

"Thank you, Miryu," he replied, before looking back to see Algren, Graham and Misao lagging behind. "Well, it looks like with those three, we won't be reaching Kyoto any earlier."

Miryu looked in the same direction and said, "Graham and Misao, I would have no idea, but I could come out with ideas that would make Nathan move faster..." The sly smile on her face made Kenshin grimace immediately.

"I do not want to know about it, and I do not want to see it actually happen!" Kenshin shouted in response. "Miryu, Misao-dono is still a child, you won't want to be polluting her innocent mind!"

* * *

Nagasaki Hiryuko looked at Shishio Makoto and his retinue involving Komagata Yumi and Seta Soujirou. "They broke your katana?" she asked Soujirou with a raised eyebrow. "And after so many years of non-violence, they actually have the strength to break the Nagasony Kotetsu... I must have underestimated them."

"Your young cousin was more happy to have disposed of Senkaku for me," Shishio replied. "But Battousai, on the other hand, will not prove to be a worthy challenge." Although he knew that Miryu had not taken a vow like that of Kenshin's, he still felt her weaker than she once was. Perhaps she had been too domesticated by the Meiji government, or the fact that she was now a wife to a man... He could not put a finger to it, but he felt that she was no longer the wild fire she used to be.

Hiryuko looked over her shoulder to meet his garnet eyes and replied, "Regardless, such power cannot be allowed to grow. We would be at an utter disadvantage if this happens... Do you have other lackeys up your sleeves to be more worthy opponents for Battousai and Battouryu?"

A flash ran through Shishio's red orbs. "Indeed, I have, Hiryuko. Indeed I have," Turning to Soujirou, he said, "Soujirou, I want you to gather the Juppon Gatana, all ten of them. They might be able to return Battousai and Battouryu back to their original states."

"The Juppon Gatana?" Hiryuko asked. "Do tell, my friend, what are they?"

It was a question Yumi answered, "It is Shishio-sama's most trusted band of warriors who are the strongest in all of Japan," she said with a light smile. "All ten of them with their own specialities and abilities."

The answer rather intrigued Hiryuko. "Indeed, the best of Japan you say?" she asked, piercing her own katana into the earth. "I would very much like to see them myself."

"I promise you, Hiryuko, that they are as blood-thirsty as you are," Shishio replied with the most charming smile that he could ever muster. "And they will carry out our plans to utter perfection."

The older Daughter of the Dragon returned his gaze and said, "Well, you had better honor your words. I would not want to lose a partner, after all."

* * *

Deeper in the forest, a few hours later, Nagasaki Hiryuko was running through her kata one by one, in the dance of swords that ran through her veins as sure as her own blood. It was ironic, deeply ironic that usually, it was the men that could feel whether a woman was from the Line of Dragons, while the women had no clue at all. Most of them were either discovered by their own fathers, or those that were close to them. There was certainly a great pull and an attraction between the two. Women from her line would always find themselves in the world where no other women dared to enter... But one thing was for sure, whoever that daughter of her bloodline was, she would never be far away from that one style of kenjutsu, even if she did not practice it.

Her late cousin, Reiyama Ryumiko was a fine example of it. She had created the Shinsen-Gumi's only style, of which Gatotsu was the most famous of its techniques, but she fell in love with the style's Master of the time.

Her younger cousin, Algren Miryu as she is called now, was a student of said style, and perhaps, was a greater master of it than Battousai was. And she, was involved with two men from the style as well. One her own master, who loved her like his own daughter and Battousai, a man that she had looked upon like a brother....

As Hiryuko ran through one last technique, she could not help but to utter, "Hiten-Mistsurugi Ryuu, Ryu-Tsui-Sen!" as she split a young tree into half vertically from above...

_Women of the Line of Dragons will never wander far from it..._ she thought, as she looked at the waxing moon.


	12. Arrival

Kyoto city... After days upon the Toukai Way, finally, Kenshin and Miryu have arrived in Kyoto, along with Misao, Algren and Graham. It looked so peaceful, as if the city herself could not remember that not a night passed when a head was severed ten years ago. The violence that had been felt and created, wholly disappeared, forgotten by time. It was ten years ago that Kenshin turned his back on this city, shunning the memories he had of this place, and ten years onward, he had returned once again.

For Miryu, it was more of a home-coming. While it was true that she and Algren now lived in Tokyo, there was not a time when her thoughts did not return to this magnificent city, where her roots would always be. There was an air of familiarity, and the feel of returning to the embrace of a dearly loved motherly being. This was once the capital of Japan, the shining jewel of the Land of the Rising Sun. It was here that she started to carve her own destiny, and she had come home indeed.

"I will not allow this city to be stained with blood once again," Kenshin muttered, words that only Miryu could hear. In response, she smiled, and told him that no one in the city would ever wish for it to happen. And the deeper into the city they went, the more Kenshin felt as if he had been away from Kyoto for too long. He used to be able to recognize the doctor's clinic near the city gates, or the flower-seller that would always sell the freshest blossoms by the riverbank... All of them were gone, replaced by other things, and new people... This Kyoto was not the one that he remembered, although Miryu seemed so at ease here...

In Algren's eye, this was where the two of them differed the most. Kenshin even hid his scar under a medicated patch, thinking that he would not be recognized if he had done this, a rather foolish attempt, but no one could blame him for it. "Come on, we have to send Misao home first," he told the others, but Misao just grinned and pointed towards an inn.

"I am home!" she exclaimed happily before skipping towards an old man who was sweeping the floor at the entrance of the inn. "Jiya!" she called towards the old man, garnering an immediate response.

And a frail one, that old man was not. With unimagined speed, he dashed towards Misao and hugged her, with the crushing force of a bear, causing the teenager to wail playfully in pain. "This is for being so late in your return without a single word!" he said. Miryu had a scant suspicion that the man was a little wrong in the head, while Kenshin was almost mortified. "Ah, you must be the ones who brought Misao-chan back!" he said to the rest of them. "I'm awfully sorry, she can be quite a handful!"

Miryu, ever the more hospitable and diplomatic one, smiled and bowed, saying, "She was hardly any trouble," gaining three poisonous glares as a result, but glares that she ignored, they remain. And not long after that, four individuals, two men and two women sprang from the doors of the inn and began to fuss over Misao, all of whom were obviously pleased to see her again.

"Well, that was a nice little reunion, wasn't it?" Graham asked Kenshin, Miryu and Algren. "Why don't we stop by at my tea-shop for a cup of tea?"

But just as they turned to leave, the old man said to them, "Wait, we have not thanked you yet," There was a sly tone in his voice, and by instinct, Miryu's hand flew towards the handle of her katana, despite its deplorable condition. Misao, on the other hand, joyfully invited them to a feast in honor of her return. "Yes, please stay, Himura Battousai, Algren Battouryu and Captain Algren." Ah, with all their identities revealed, there was no reason that they could turn down this invitation. "Please do not tell me that by hiding your scar and turning towards Mr Simon Graham's tea-shop, you are able to hide from us?"

If Misao was from the Oniwabanshuu, and she was partially cared for by Aoshi, it was a huge possibility that the inn where Misao had lived, the Aoiya, could have been the Kyoto headquarters of the Oniwabanshuu. Scratch that, it was the Kyoto headquarters, and being former Ishin-Ishishi combatants, Miryu and Kenshin were unsure of their safety, even though they were already past that age of enmity. Some things, just would not change, as their journey so far had taught them.

"Please, do not resort to such cliches," the old man prodded. "We are living in the age of Meiji, are we not?"

* * *

The moment all of them were in the Aoiya, Misao proclaimed that she would be taking a bath, and immediately, the old man ushered the others into a more private part of the inn. "There would be no doubt that Misao would have revealed herself as one of the Oniwabanshuu, as foolish as it is," the old man told them. "As you would have already guessed, I, Kashiwazaki Nenji, (you can call me Okina), was one of the Oniwabanshuu as well. I opened this inn because the previous Okashira knew that Kyoto would be the center of violence after the Black Ships came, and I was tasked to gather information... Ironically, this inn survived, while the Bakufu did not. This is now a refuge for those of us who are unable to find work in these times, or who still feels a sense of belonging to our former organization."

"That may be why Aoshi left Misao-dono de gozaru na," Kenshin stated. However, his words gave Okina quite a shock. The old man did not expect any of them to have known Aoshi, their Okashira for any reason at all, for the Oniwabanshuu was almost invisible during the times of the Bakumatsu. There was no choice, but to relate to him the fate of Aoshi and the rest of the Oniwabanshuu in Tokyo. Somehow, Okina seemed to be one that could not be taken lightly, his voice demanded total obedience whenever he spoke.

And as Kenshin recounted how Beshimi, Hann'ya, Hyotokko and Shikijou were shot dead by the Gatling gun owned by an opium producer, there was not a single change of expression that could be seen in Okina, revealing his experience and wisdom. Even as he had said how bravely the old man's former comrades fought to defend their Okashira, even as Aoshi was recalled remaining in a daze after the villain had been brought down by Kenshin, not a word escpaded from him... "Please, Okina-dono, sessha would appreciate it if you could keep this a secret from Misao-dono."

Okina nodded. "There would be no reason to cause her extra suffering," he said, "That may be the best for her now..." Then, focusing on the current issue, he added, "Battou- no, Himura-dono, you have disappeared from Kyoto ten years ago... Now you return in the company of this lovely lady (may I call you Miryu, my dear?)... Tell me, is it because of the rumors that your successor, Shishio Makoto has resurfaced?"

"There would be no doubt about it, Okina," Miryu said, "Kenshin and I will not rest until we have stopped him from destroying the peace that we have now." Heaving a sigh, Okina told them that he and the Oniwabanshuu would be on their side, not only because they had brought Misao home safely, but they shared the same views. The old man also said that he loved Kyoto for what she was today, peaceful, serene and pristine, unlike what it had been for the past decade, and the centuries before that. He loved her so much, that he would once again take the field, even if he had previously been retired.

Kenshin, on the other hand, did not wish to put unnecessary parties into the line of fire. If he could have his way, he would not have Okina risk the lives of the Oniwabanshuu again, and also that of Misao's. But, at Okina's insistence, he finally agreed. "We would need the information that they can get," Algren added, giving a pat to Okina's shoulder. "And, perhaps you could provide us with lodging?"

"No, no, Captain Algren," Okina replied, in fluent English. "It is our honor to have you here, your food and board will be on the house!"

"Okina-dono, you are indeed full of surprises de gozaran," Kenshin said while Miryu started to give Algren a lesson on how big an organization the Oniwabanshuu actually was. "Actually, Sessha needs your help degozaru yo... Would you use your information network to locate these two people: Arai Shakku and Hiko Seijurou?"

* * *

Looking at the white crescent moon from the window of their room, Miryu looked at Algren and said, "Soon, Kenshin and I shall meet with Shishou... It would be a reunion to remember indeeed..." There was a smile on her face, one that carried the memories of long, forgotten times, one that appeared with sweet memories. "It would be fifteen years since all three of us were together."

"I'm sure you'll be dying for that moment to come," Algren replied, giving her a kiss on her temple. "But, knowing Hiko, it would not be a pleasant one for Kenshin, wouldn't it?" Whenever Miryu visited her master, the two of them would always end up sparring, and as always, Hiko would always be the victor, even if she was technically the fourteenth Master of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu. And if what Miryu had told him about their childhood was true, that Hiko was a punishing task master bordering on cruelty, then Kenshin would have even a harder time while trying to learn the ougi after so many years.

Miryu could only giggle at his words. "You're right, Nathan," she told him, resting her head on his chest as he cuddled her closer. "Hiko Seijurou XIII is one who bears grudges as easily as he drinks Sake. Kenshin would be a very lucky man indeed if he can walk out of his final training alive... Shishou may have a hard mouth, but his heart is genuinely soft. He will not admit it, but he cares for Kenshin, as much as he cares for me."

That much, Algren knew, was true. Even if he had only seen Hiko interact with Miryu, he could see that whenever Hiko berated her, whenever he nitpicked at her already flawless technique, he could see how much the master wanted her to know that she must never be complacent of her prowess, that she still had much to learn. Hiko Seijurou might have been a hard man, but he does as his moments, after all.

"Well, its a good thing that he is not interested in improving my technique," Algren said, suddenly remembering the numerous beatings Ujio had dealt him during his time of "captivity" in Nobutada's village in the mountains. "I certainly will not be left alive."

Smiling, Miryu put her hand on his cheek and said, "He would not dare to kill my husband just because he wishes to train you." Pressing her lips against his between chuckles, Algren crept above her, his hands supporting his weight at either side of her head. "Do you know why?" she whispered into his ear, her breath hot on his neck.

Raising an eyebrow, Algren asked, "What?"

"Because, you are mine to torture for the night..." Miryu replied, covering the blanket over his head.

* * *

There could not be a worse arrangement of lodgings, Kenshin cursed inwardly. It was disturbing enough to witness the newlyweds' public displays of affection, but to be housed in the room next to theirs at night... Kenshin swore that there was no worse torture. And just when he thought that he finally had the chance to sleep undisturbed, he could have sworn that he heard Miryu scream Algren's name so loudly that all of Kyoto could be awakened.

He would have to change rooms with Graham tomorrow night...


	13. Katana

Morning came swiftly, and the moment Kenshin awoke, he was not surprised to hear Kiryu and Algren still going on with their "marital duties" to put it politely. Honestly, could a man and a woman not tire of one another after so long? They were married more than a year, and still, they could not keep their hands to themselves whenever they were together... Although there was no denying that he was truly happy for the two of them, but, it kind of disturbed him, the fact that dear Miryu, his childhood friend, being in a man's arms... Miryu, who was always there whenever he looked around, Miryu, who was with him when he cut down hundreds of men to defend the coming of a new age...

"Himura, good morning!" Misao's chirpy voice rang as the teenager opened the shoji doors to his room, her expression changing quite instantaneously when she found that he was already dressed for the day. "And I thought that I would catch you half-asleep," she muttered, but skipped towards Miryu's room, only to scream many thousands of apologies. No doubt, the child would be scarred for life, Kenshin mused slightly as Miryu could not stop giggling.

Several minutes later, Okina came up with Graham, and by then, Miryu and Algren were already ready, and Misao had already recovered from her shock. "Now that you are all ready, why don't we show Himura around town?" he asked, to which Misao and Miryu immediately agreed, while conspiring to make a few purchases of their own.

Kenshin, on the other hand, was rather uneasy with the idea. He and Miryu had already revealed themselves to Shishio, not to mention Algren, and there was a high probability that he would have sent his spies and thugs to kill them. That may not be a problem for them, but it may be the greatest danger to the people around them, and the bystanders who are innocent...

"Well, Kenshin, if you would," Graham said, "It is a known fact that Shishio would attack any time, no matter how much you run or hide." For awhile, Kenshin looked stunned, but then, he remembered how efective Graham was in attaining information, even without the Police's information network, or the Oniwabanshuu's intelligence. There was no denying that he knew a lot about the current situation, and that he was absolutely right.

Miryu smiled and said, "Even when we were the shadow hitokiri, we still ventured out in broad daylight," In the corner of her eye, she saw one of the Oniwabanshu members handing a piece of paper to Okina, regarding more information, no doubt. She never imagined that she would be right in the Kyoto base of the fabled Oniwabanshuu, as guests of their inn... Turning towards the elderly onmitsu, she asked, "Okina, is there anything that you need to tell us?"

Nodding, Okina explained, "The search for the person you were looking for had already begun yesterday, and we have the location you need... However, Arai Shakku, the one who made both the titanium katana and the sakabattou has been dead for eight years,"

That was not good news at all. While Miryu could do with a common katana, it was Kenshin who would be at a disadvantage if there was no other sword-maker who could forge another sakabattou... Hitokiri Battousai would resurface again, and he would not stop killing... The effect would be one even worse than Shishio's victory. It was a result that he could not afford to let happen at any cost.

"Okina, wouldn't this Arai Shakku have a son, or someone he taught his life's work to?" Algren asked, breaking the horrendous silence. To his understanding, the swords made by this legendary craftsman were sought after all over Japan, even to this day. Not only Kenshin and Miryu's katana, but that of his grandfather in-law, Reiyama Reiji as well... And he had met several diplomats who were willing to shell out massive amounts of money just to get the lesser-known katana under Arai's name... The list was rather endless.

Luckily for them, Okina said that Arai Shakku had a son, Arai Seiku, and that he was just as adept in the craft of sword-making as his father had been. The only thing was that in those times of relative peace, he no longer makes katana, but tools for everyday life as well. "And if you would like, we can go visit this Arai Seiku, to see if he would make new weapons for our young saviors," Graham said, and sped off at the same speed as Okina when both Miryu and Kenshin quietly agreed.

Laughing, Miryu said, "One would think that they were twins from another lifetime, Graham and Okina," At least, there was still the sound of laughter and the antics of goofy old men to lighten the mood. No one would have thought that the future of the country would be dangling on whether or not two of Japan's finest warriors would be able to acquire replacements for their damaged weapons.

* * *

"This is where Seiku lives now," Okina said, pointing to a small house by the roadside. It was not a shabby little hut, but it was not a lavish mansion as well. It was enough for a small family. There was a small stand before the entrance of the house, where there were knives and sharp tools on display.

Miryu looked about, and asked, "Is anybody home?" To their surprise, a little baby popped from under the display, shocking them to no end. "Why is a child here?" The boy literally had no fear of strangers, extending his little hand, demanding handshakes from Kenshin until his mother appeared from the entrance and picked him up.

Bowing, the mother said, "Forgive my son... May I help you with anything?"

"May Sessha try a kitchen knife de gozaru ka?" Kenshin said, nudging Miryu to aside as they reached for the same knife. Beaten, she smiled and picked out another one. And strangely, he picked a radish from his gi, and threw it into the air. As it fell, both Kenshin and Miryu each cut the radish, and when they caught the pieces, they held them back to the original body... Just as Misao was about to ask what they were doing, three pieces were joined together, as if the radish had not been cut.

There was no end to the amazement on Okina and Graham's faces, and the both of them took turns to explain what had just happened. "The return cut," Graham exclaimed, "Years ago, this technique was formulated to test the quality of a blade!"

"Not only that!" Okina added. "Nothing has been crushed on the lines where the cut was, hence, the pieces are able to be joined together! This not only shows Himura-dono and Miryu's skill, but that of Arai Seiku's!"

The child's mother, bowed at the praise of her husband's skill. "Madam, please, is your husband here?" Miryu asked, "We need him to make new katana for us."

Said husband approached them from behind. He was tall, but not stocky as his father had been, and had none of the imposing gait that Arai Shakku had. However, he was his father's son. There was a kindly smile to him, and his appearance, Miryu could tell that Shakku's mother had not been adulterous at all. "Sorry, I am Arai Seiku," he told them, "I heard what you have said, and forgive me, I will not make any more weapons for any one..."

Algren scanned the young man up and down, and asked, "Why?" Miryu looked at her husband and clasped her fingers around his. "I mean, we are in desparate need of two katana right now."

Seiku bowed in apology once again. "Every since I could remember, my father told me that his swords would be the ones that will bring about the new age, but I disagreed with him. What his weapons ever did was kill thousands of lives, but in those times, there was nothing I could do..." Kenshin and Miryu looked at one another, and Miryu took in a breath of air, bracing herself for the words that would come. "And now, even the samurai have cast down their katana, I shall turn down the art of making katana as well."

"Yes, yes, peace is important to everyone," Graham said, while Okina restrained Misao from attacking the man. "Now, forgive us for disturbing you..."

Even as they left, Seiku's wife said to Seiku, "They have come all this way for katana, perhaps we should give them the two last ones..."

"No, this is now the age of peace, no one needs katana anymore."

* * *

Miryu looked at Algren and Kenshin, and back to her notched katana. "What are we going to do? Most of the makers of the katana would not make weapons for former Ishin-Ishishi members like us, and the only one with Shakku's skills refuses to make one for us," she sighed. "What are we going to do?"

Okina smoothed out his beard and said, "Miryu, during the Bakumatsu, there were reports of you using other weapons as well..." She smiled and told the old man that the weapons that she handled on the side were daggers for throwing and whips, nothing in comparison to actual katana. Indeed, there was no mistake that she was a samurai to the core.

"If Seiku made weapons for us, Shishio's men would have eliminated him and his family de gorazan," Kenshin said, "At least, there is another person to meet..."

* * *

If there was another word to describe Shishio Makoto, Hiryuko would deem him to be a cunning "human resource manager". He was an excellent judge of character, and was able to source the best men to work for him. Take this Chou character, for example. He was a vicious killer, and a collector of katana to boot. "Nagasaki Hiryuko-san!" he exclaimed when he met her walking with Shishio and Yumi, as well as the man who was Shishio's head advisor, Houji. "I never thought that you would be one of us."

Hiryuko scoffed. "One of you?" she asked. "It would be more accurate to say that I am Shishio's equal partner... Say, those are beautiful katana, how many have you killed with those?"

"Quite a few, would you like me to tell you about them?" Chou asked with a wild twinkle in his eyes. "Or, I can show them to you."

Chuckling, Shishio said, "Come on, Chou, do not flirt with your boss, no matter how ravishing she is." It was strange. He would desire women like Miryu and Yumi, but he had no shred of desire to Hiryuko, even if she was dressed in a suit of leather that showed every curve of her body, just like Mryu would always wear. "And you will have the opportunity to show off your skills very soon, if Houji's reports are right."

"Yesterday, Himura and Battouryu made contact with a man named Arai Seiku, who is Arai Shakku's son, to replace their katana, but he refused," Houji said, confirming Shishio's words. "Now, we have news that there are two last katana in a shrine that only he knows the location of."

A sly smile crossed Hiryuko's elegant features. "So, the little dragons have lost their claws," she joked, feigning sympathy by batting her long lashes as she spoke those words. "Who shall remove them of their misery?"

At her words, Houji said, "It would be disastrous if the two of them get to the Juppon Gatana!"

Nevertheless, Chou started to walk towards the exit of the underground fortress. "I will be looking to get the last words of Shakku," he annouced. "Hey, boss-lady, I shall be looking to have a round of celebratory drinks with you when I come back."

The blond-haired woman nodded and blew him a flying kiss while rolling her eyes towards Yumi, who giggled to her reaction. "Chou, do not make a mess," Shishio said. Once Chou was gone, he turned to Hiryuko and asked, "How long before your darling cousin and Battousai defeats him?"

"Both of them?" came the reply, "I don't think he will survive even one."


	14. Renewal

"Miryu, calm down, you're going to burn a hole in the floor," Graham said to Miryu, who had a bottle of Sake in her hand, and one of her whips in another. Algren was with Okina and Kenshin, discussing their next move, while Misao was nowhere to be found... "Perhaps you could loan your grandfather's katana?"

With her sapphire eyes, Miryu glared at the Englishman and asked, "What about Kenshin, then?" She knew the consequences of Kenshin returning to becoming hitokiri Battousai. As hitokiri, he was more bloodthirsty and violent than she was, although the both of them were regarded as equals, and if he killed again, no one would be able to subdue him. She had sworn before that she would never lay her katana against his in straight combat, and she knew that he would be an even more formidable enemy than Shishio would be. And when that happens, even she would not be able to stop him... "He needs a sakabattou, and nothing else."

Graham took the bottle of sake from her hand and asked her, "Do you have so little faith in Kenshin?" He had known them around the second year of their career in the Choushu-han, and ever since then, he had never lost contact with either of them, even if Kenshin had roamed around Japan for ten years. His belief was that there was no one stronger than Kenshin in willpower, and he was appalled that she would even agree with Kenshin that he would return into Battousai willy-nilly just like that.

"You do not know Kenshin as I do," she replied. "He is so pure in mind and soul, it borders on stupidity. I am not qouting my Shishou, I am speaking with experience, Graham, nothing can get to him once he sets his mind to it, not even me." It had happened ever since he left their training to fight for the Ishin-Ishishi, and no matter what she said, he would not remain, much less Hiko Seijurou.

It was a revelation that Graham never knew would come. And one that if true, would bring dire ramifications to Japan. That was why Miryu was acting as she was, and that was why she had never let her heart at ease, until Kenshin had a sakabattou in his hands again.

Just then, Kenshin, Okina and Algren dashed out of Kenshin's rooms and out the door, while Algren dragged Miryu out, who had Graham in tow. "Where are we going?" Graham asked, trying hard to keep up.

"We have received word from Misao that one of Shishio's lackeys met Seiku and is now taking his son hostage for the last two katana made by his father!" Okina exclaimed, no doubt, he would receive such news via carrier pigeon, a method which was still used even in those days, for their effectiveness and reliability. Armed with only her whips, Miryu looked at Kenshin, who still had his sakabattou by his side...

It was a dire situation indeed, and Miryu knew that there was no time to waste.

* * *

Chou the Collector of Katana walked up the steps of the Hakusan Shrine and found two figures already waiting for him. One was a woman, taller than most Japanese man, her hair the color of the night, holding a whip in each hand, while the other was a man, shorter than the woman, with red hair that burned like fire and a bandage was plastered upon his cheek... "Who are you?" he asked them, and the man pulled off the bandage, revealing his cross-shaped scar. At the same time, a breeze started to blow, and the woman's hair moved accordingly, showing her own unique scar at her neck, the word "ryu".

There was no need for answers, for their apperances alone were evidence enough as to who they were. Miryu and Kenshin knew well enough that Chou could recognize them immediately, what was important, was that they saved the child that he was dangling by one of his katana that he was holding upright. "Release the child," Kenshin commanded, earning only a sly smile in return.

"Ah, the two hitokiri are here," Chou said in his thick Kansai accent, "Battousai and Battouryu... Are you here for the last works of Arai Shakku as well?" Houji's intelligence reports never lied, and he knew that they were after the same items as he was, even if they might not show it.

Kenshin's features were unmoving, remaining as stern as they had been. "We are not hunting for the same weapons de gozaru, release the child and we shall be on our way," Miryu said, revealing her sapphire eyes already flecked with amber. "Shakku's grandson has no quarrel with what you seek." The flare of Ki from her was so strong that every katana on Chou's body started to quiver and shake, pronouncing her power. However, it failed to deter Chou in any way, it only managed to pique his interest further.

After hanging Seiku's son on a tree-branch with an ingenious move by thrusting his saya and the child onto the air, revealing his dearly-prized weapon. "I'll guess that I'll decline your request," he told them, "We'll have a fair and honorable fight instead."

"I do not think that you know what you are talking about means," Miryu scoffed, readying her whips while touching her hair on the left side of her head, a sign to Kenshin that she would attack from the left, while Kenshin pointed straight towards Chou, and told him that fighting a man with a broken katana and a woman with only whips to defend herself while holding a hostage has no honor. Miryu, however, understood the gesture, where Kenshin had indicated that he would allow their opponent to charge towards him.

With that, Chou started his attack, springing forward towards Kenshin as he had predicted, and Miryu leapt to Chou's left, and whipped his back, breaking all of the katana with sheer use of her Ki. "Hey, that's not fair!" he shouted, while Kenshin was able to evade him just by stepping to the side. _Too weak, there was no chance that Shishio Makoto would allow such a weakling to be at the center of his plans_, Miryu thought, he does not have the same standards as Shishio does, although a deranged man he remained, he was still a man of honor, not like this common rogue. _Well, at least he was down and out already..._

Kenshin immediately turned towards Seiku's son, who seemed to be unharmed and smiled to the boy, only to sense Chou getting up behind him. Miryu thought that he was about to attack, but on the contrary, he clamped two of his blades together, forming a single katana with two blades, which interestingly enough, Kenshin broke into pieces with a bare-fisted punch, ending with a Ryu-Sho-Sen attack aimed at his abdoment, which sent him flying towards the ground. If he was the common riff-raff that Kenshin had fought these days in Tokyo, it would be enough to finish him...

"Don't worry, child," Miryu said to the baby, who was cooing and gurgling at her. "We will bring you to your parents safe and sound..." However, she was interrupted by Chou, who was steadily rising to his full height. He had already shed his outer clothes, revealing some sort of armor that he wore on his waist, ending the riddle as to why he could withstand Kenshin's attack.

However, something told her that the thing around his waist was not armor at all... As she looked at him, she saw a tsuba that was not attached to any katana on his body... No, the thing _was_ a katana, so flexible that he could wear it around his waist like armor. "No!" she heard Seiku crying in anguish. When did he get here? When did Okina, Misao, Algren and Graham get here, for that matter? "This is one of my father's later works, one that he had refined again and again..."

Without a moment's notice, Kenshin's leg received a deep, vertical cut from the katana, which was revealed to be extremely long, if not extremely flexible, while one of Miryu's whips was cut into pieces. "This is not good," Graham stuttered, while he saw Algren starting to reach for his gun. "Wait," he told the American. If there was something that he had learnt in Japan, was that things had to go down honorably. "Miryu and Kenshin would never live this down if you helped them like that..." And luckily for him, Okina agreed.

"This is their fight, Algren-kun," Okina added, and reluctantly, Algren withdrew his intentions to shoot Chou. "I know that you love your wife, but this is no way to end a battle."

If it were any day, Algren would have readily argued with the two of them, but it was not any other day, with each little progress Kenshin and Miryu achieved, they were once again cut down by the deadly Hakujin-no-tachi, which was the name of the katana Chou was using, its blade weighted in such a manner that one flick of the wrist could direct it anywhere the user wished to attack.

Miryu spat out blood as she leapt into the air with Kenshin's saya and hit Chou on the head, and for the briefest moment, she was able to evade his attacks, but the impact of her own assult crumbled the saya into nothingness, and once again, she was left without a weapon, and was cut right across her abdomen, while Chou manuvered the blade towards Kenshin, and cut his chest just seconds after, earning a deathly glare from his opponent.

"Those eyes again," he said, looking at the both of them. "Do you even understand that you are about to die just for some kid?" he asked them, but Kenshin helped Miryu to stand, both struggling to gain their composure.

"Ten years ago, we killed many to bring in the new age," Kenshin said, numbing his mind from the pain his wounds had caused him. "You do not even know how gruesome it was... We fought for the children of today, we fought for the child that you are going to kill, and we cannot allow that de gozaran!"

Miryu looked at Seiku's son and added, "You might see this child as a nuisance, but for us, he is the gift sent onto us from the heavens, our hope for the future!" Algren knew that she could not last any more beatings, and was losing her stamina... "We will risk our lives to defend him from people like you if need be!"

Just then, Seiku started to dash towards the shrine, knowing that he would buy Kenshin and Miryu enough time to recover, and that he was the only one who could deliver them the weapons that they so desparately needed. "Himura-san, Algren-san, please, hang in there!"

It was more than Chou could allow. His rage had started to blind him, and Miryu knew that it was time to strike. There was still a bit of Kenshin's saya left usable, and it was what they utilized. Nodding to one another, Miryu became the decoy, and leapt towards Chou, while Kenshin channeled length of Chou's flexible katana through the opening of the saya, closing their distance to him. With that, the both of them smashed his forehead with their elbows, knocking him down once again.

With that, Seiku called them, and threw them the katana they needed. Miryu's even had a golden bell at the tsuba, one that rang almost similarly to that of her mother's. There was no time now, the final attack had to happen now. It was to kill, or be killed. But Miryu knew, even if she had a katana now, Kenshin was in the position to attack, not her. There was nothing more that she could do. Gripping her new katana, she felt its weight settle against her. Yes, it was a little heavier than that of her mother's, but it was made from tamahagane, unlike her previous weapon. The saya was made just the same, with a snakeskin wrapping. And she knew, like her previous weapon, it would not be a sakabattou. She had no need for one, but Kenshin... He stood there for the longest time, contemplating whether or not to restart the duel.

_Once the rurouni inside him tastes blood, he will never stop killing,_Miryu's inner voice told her, and she knew that it was true. If that happened, she would have to break her oath... _ I will have to kill Kenshin before Shishio kills him_...

"Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryu-Kan-Sen Tsumuji!" Kenshin shouted after a long moment of silence, and immediately attacked Chou, an attack that Kenshin executed while spinning in mid-air, his body parallel to the ground, sweeping an arc aimed towards Chou's neck. _I attacked_, he thought, _ its over...

* * *

_

Simon Graham would never have thought that he would see that one day, the violence during the Bakumatsu would be repeated, that one day, the gentle, quiet soul that was Himura Kenshin would be drawn once again towards bloodlust... He could not imagine that he would live to see the day, and he was terrified.

"Sakabattou," Algren's voice rang, shaking the Englishman from his dark thoughts. "It is a sakabattou!" He repeated, along with Misao, whose voice was killed with joy. Kenshin looked up and blinked. He did not understand. Apart from Miryu's katana, Arai Shakku's last work, was a sakabattou?

To that, Miryu smiled, and said, "Thank the gods," before collapsing. She had bore the brunt of Chou's attacks, knowing that it was Kenshin's fight in the first place, to find the balance between the hitokiri and the rurouni from within him, and this time, it was evident that the rurouni won by a clear default. Algren rushed to his wife, overjoyed to see that she was still conscious. "Nathan, don't worry," she whispered, "I'm alright."

Algren lifted her chin with his finger and hushed her. "I know..." he replied, and carried her in his arms while turning to face Kenshin. "Kenshin, look!" he said, when the tsuba of the new sakabattou started to split, dropping the blade to the floor, revealing engraved words where the tsuba had been.

"I forged katana that killed for countless of years, this is for my grandchildren who bear no ill-will at all," Miryu read from Algren's arms, and she looked at hers as well. Like Kenshin's the tsubasa was made of brittle wood that she could easily break. "For the youngest dragon, a katana for the new age... The blood that this katana sheds, will always be the last..."

* * *

Hours later, at the Aoiya, after Kenshin and Miryu had received proper treatment for their wounds, and Chou was shipped off to the police for Saito to handle, Seiku quickly made new tsuba for both of the new katana. "My father continued to make weapons that killed at the height of the Bakumatsu... and I thought that he was just stubborn. He really wanted to end the bloodshed after all, that is why he made these two last katana..."

"The Tetsu-Rou-Jou of the Shinsen-Gumi used a titanium katana, and Shakku knew that one day, her daughter would fight as well, per the Line of Dragons, so he made a new one for the Youngest Dragon as well," Okina added, looking at Miryu.

* * *

"_I heard that the two of you are leaving the Ishin-Ishishi", Shakku said to Kenshin and Miryu, who stood side by side amidst cries of victory. The battle of Toba and Fushimi had been won, and from then on, the Ishin-Ishishi would easily gain control of all Japan, any fighting from then on, would be for selfish reasons... "The two of you have lived and killed with the sword, and it is only fitting that you would die by it as well, for the lives that you have taken."_

_Both Miryu and Kenshin smiled, claiming that they would not have it in any other way. "Himura, I heard that you would not kill anymore, and here is the katana that might help you," Shakku added, throwing a katana towards Kenshin, one with a reversed edge. "This is not my finest work, and if and when this one breaks, I shall give you another one..." Kenshin took it and bowed his thanks. "Tsubasa, you seem pretty comfortable using your mother's katana, but remember, you are the youngest of the Line of Dragons, and possibly the last. When that one breaks, you shall have a new one too._ _You shall create a new linage, and with that, you need a new one..._"

Shakku always had a sense of morbid humor about him. Although in death, he has earnt the respect of his long-estranged son, and for generations to come, he would always be remembered, as the man who created weapons to kill, weapons that shed blood, for an age of peace.


	15. Master

Miryu relished this day for fifteen years already. It was the day she was going back to her former home, with Kenshin. It was a reunion that she had been waiting for fifteen years, literally almost half her lifetime, and depending on what calender system you were using, around her fourteenth or fifteenth year of life. "You look like a kid at the candy store," Algren told her, handing her a hair-stick, the exact one that Kenshin tried to steal and pawn. "I've never seen you so happy before, Miryu."

Looking at the little bronze mirror, she looked at her smiling reflection. "The both of them were not together at our wedding," she said, reading his mind completely. Her sapphire eyes were glowing with a reminiscent light that made Algren love her even more, and Gods, he knew that she wanted nothing more than to actually see Kenshin and Hiko together ever since the former defaulted his training to join the Ishin-Ishishi.

* * *

"_We did not know that the name was a secret one," Okina had told Kenshin, while Miryu smacked her own face out of exasperation before hitting Kenshin on the head. _

"_Excuse me, not all of us had utterly no contact with Shishou!" she exclaimed to Kenshin, who was nursing a new head-wound by then, her clear voice nothing more than a vicious growl, enlightening Okina to what the Line of Dragons actually meant.

* * *

_

Afternoon. The air was clean, and the water was flowing in the stream near his kiln as it has always been. But that day, the wind had been a little stronger, and the fires a little hard to control. It had been always like that, his two foolish apprentices always had a strange affinity to the elements: Miryu to fire, and Kenshin to the wind. The two of them were coming, and they were coming together. It had been fifteen years since they were last before him, the both of them.

He could sense it, the apprehensive flow of Ki that came from nowhere at all. Seconds later, he felt two katana swinging towards him, and one leap towards the skies was enough to evade their attacks. "Attacking a lone potter in the middle of nowhere," he told Kenshin and Miryu, "You should be ashamed of yourselves."

A chuckle could be heard. Miryu's most definitely. He had seen her more often since her marriage to the American, as strange as he was, and he was inwardly thankful for it. She had someone who loved her for a husband, and a thriving business, well, there was nothing he could ask for when she was concerned.

"Hiko Seijurou cannot be said to be a common potter," Kenshin said, sheathing his katana as Miryu did, before bowing to him. There were many works around them, and the kiln that they always seen. It was strange, very strange that he had never even relocated after fifteen years, what was it about this place that made him stay there after so long?

Miryu walked towards Hiko and said, "Shishou, we're home..." There was a small silence between them, and she could detect a small smile on his part, but not for long. He turned around with his katana on his shoulder, and walked into his house, telling them that since they had the gall to see him with each other again, they might as well be straight and open with them.

The house had not changed much as well, as Kenshin had found out. There were ceramics all around though, upon shelves that Hiko had obviously installed. When they were but children, he would always make one or two in order to make ends meet. He had himself and two growing children to feed anyways, but why continue with it? "Sessha can see that Niitsu Kakunoshin is a rising star in the world of pottery," Kenshin said, looking around him.

"Genius cannot be eluded in whatever form a genius pours himself in," Hiko said, almost blinding his two apprentices with the light reflected from his teeth. "Besides, with Miryu's gentle prodding, I do get the one or two guillible gaijin after my works, so why not?"

Those words were enough to set Kenshin and Miryu into a huddle. "Ah, and I thought that he was really that famous," Kenshin whispered to Miryu, who replied that she had strategically put some of Hiko's better pieces in her home whenever Algren brings home some customers, and she would bring them to Kyoto on a side tour with a certain extra charge to get them to Hiko's place to buy more from the "master" himself.

Hiko sighed. They were young, they were still impertinent. Foolish apprentices would always be like that. "You didn't answer my question, Kenshin," he said, "You are here to ask me something but you can't spit it out... Don't look at me like that, I am your Shishou, after all. And Miryu, don't think those eyes of yours can help him in any way."

Miryu looked away in a huff, obviously offended that her old trick did not work. Heck, it only worked when Hiko wished to act to her wishes anyways. There was no way around it, that much Kenshin knew. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Shishou, I need you to teach me the final lesson that you were going to teach Miryu and I fifteen years ago..."

At that moment, time literally stopped. Kenshin's eyes moved from Miryu's sapphire eyes to Hiko's cold emerald ones, from the ceramics behind their master, back to Hiko's again. "Absolutely not," Hiko replied, causing Kenshin to grab the hemlines of his cape, something that Miryu had never seen him do before.

"Please, Shishou," Kenshin begged, and Miryu did not neglect her part at all.

"Shishou, it would not be fair to Kenshin, that I received that part of your teachings and Kenshin did not," she said, almost in a condescending manner. It was something that Hiko had never seen before. What happened that would reduce the two of them to begging? Even in their most stubborn, they would even go on days without food when they were at loggerheads with him, continuing with his punishing training schedule...

Hiko Seijurou may be conceited, he may be a borderline alcoholic, but he was not a cruel man. "Alright," he said, brushing his hair off his face. "You look like you're at the end of your ropes, if you are here to talk about it, I shall be here to listen."

* * *

"_Himura's gone?" Misao asked Algren and Okina, with Kaoru and Yahiko in tow. Algren showed no change of expression when he saw the two of them, merely bowing in greeting, while telling Okina that they were Kenshin's friends from Tokyo. "Where is he?"_

_The two men looked at one another, wondering who was best to answer the question. "They have gone to see Niitsu Kakunoshin," Algren said in the end, "He is a rising ceramics artist overrun with orders, but that is just an alias. The man you are looking for is Hiko Seijurou XIII, the Master of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu. He is Kenshin and Miryu's Master."

* * *

_

"Why would Kenshin even go back to his Master, and not Miryu-san as well?" Yahiko asked. It was ultimately strange, because it was rumored that Battousai was more famous than Battouryu because Battousai was more effective in those days. But Sanosuke had told them before, when they went to Miryu and Algren's mansion that he could feel that Miryu was marginally more powerful than Kenshin was.

That was strange, wasn't it? They came from the same school, the same Shishou, unles...

"Himura hadn't completely mastered the style!"

An instant wave on enthusiam rushed over the two children. "Wow, that would make Kenshin an utter demon!" Yahiko exclaimed.

"While Miryu-san is already a demon in the first place!"

Kaoru just looked at the two of them, and told herself, "It is normal that swordsmen get stronger and stronger but..." Her thoughts were interrupted by a man's voice, apparently shouting.

"Miryu did not abandon her training halfway, when it was most critical for your young minds!" the owner of the voice iterated, most probably towards Kenshin. "Fifteen years ago, you left your training for those ideals of yours. It doesn't matter if Miryu is like a daughter to me, she was a loyal student of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, and if she was a man, she would have already become Hiko Seijurou XIV, and I would not have to place my hope on you!"

* * *

_Kenshin, Miryu and Hiko were training before a magnificent waterfall. Miryu seemed to be restraining Kenshin before Hiko, while making sure that her Shishou did not kill Kenshin at the same time. "No!" Hiko shouted, his voice was abstinate and final. _

"_Shishou, more and more people are being dragged into this violence!" Kenshin tried to reason, "I cannot sit here and watch the people die every single day! The Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu is all about saving those who cannot defend themselves! If I cannot use my katana, what can I do to defend them?"_

_Miryu tried to speak, but she found no words to say at all. Her sapphire eyes were filled with confusion. She was not blind. She was not deaf either. She had known all her life the oppression of the Bakufu, on the women, the old, on the children. She too, was a student of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, and she was a woman as well. She wanted to swing her katana to help in the cause too, but she knew, that there were more important things to do. "Please, Kenshin, do not make Shishou any angrier than he is now," Miryu told him through gritted teeth. _

"_If you do not wish to tell me why in legible words, then defeat me and be on your way!" Hiko said, not expecting Kenshin to hit him on the head with his sheathed katana.

* * *

_

"After that, we parted on bad terms, and you joined the Ishin-Ishishi," Hiko said, "And look at the result. Yes, you have gotten more powerful with the sword, but what about your psyche and your own soul? Have you ever thought why Miryu was never as disturbed as you are?" Kenshin knew that this was not Hiko comparing him to Miryu for comparison's sake. He knew that Hiko treated the both of them the same, it was just because Kenshin really did not continue with his training, it was really his fault. "This Shishio Makoto that you speak of, he is the ghost of the Bakumatsu, what you Ishin-Ishishi had unleashed. Yes, you may have been able to rebuild a new age out of the blood and ashes of the old one, but you created a phantom too powerful for you to stop. We of the Mitsurugi Ryuu have been able to protect the ages even under the rule of the Bakufu for 300 years, because we were all free swords without any master!"

Miryu had served the Ishin-Ishishi on her own terms, while Kenshin, he did so unquestionably, with no terms at all. After the Bakumatsu, Miryu had served the Emperor, with the condition that His Imperial Majesty did not tie her down with marriage, unless it be her own will, and she knew that she was serving by her own will. She was a free warrior, as much as she was a free spirit. That is why she was able to retain her sanity. That is why Kenshin was different than her. In his desire to defend the people, he had given himself to the demon, literally...

"You have never understood this," Hiko exclaimed. "You could never have learnt the ougi!"

At this moment, the door was kicked down by two children. A boy and a girl, to Hiko's eyes, shocking Kenshin and Miryu to no end. They knew these children, he mused, and by the looks of it, they knew them well.

"Are these friends of yours?" Hiko asked, and subconsciously, the two of them nodded. Usually, Miryu would be the first to shove them away, but Kenshin seemed to have other ideas. And what put the icing on the cake, was that beautiful kenjutsu-teaching girl from Tokyo, Kamiya Kaoru. She had bet with her husband how long would it take for Kenshin to propose to her... Judging from this situation, it would not be long since then. "Are you not talking to the girl?" he asked Kenshin. "She seems to have a lot to say to you..."

Kenshin tried struggle, but something within him restrained himself. "Kenshin, just go," Miryu said, pushing him towards Kaoru, while the children faced Kenshin fiercely.

"How old are you?" Misao and Yahiko asked Hiko, to the surprise of all.

"Forty-three, is there a problem with that?" came the reply.

The answer was enough to start a fit for the two of them.

"How can Kenshin and this guy be so good?" Yahiko asked, before turning to Miryu, "Wait... Kenshin said Miryu-san is almost only a year younger than he is..."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Misao asked, her voice increasing in volume and shrillness. "You mean, Himura and Miryu-san just look young?"

"Yeah, Kenshin is twenty-eight!" Yahiko exclaimed. And then, a sudden clearness came into his mind. "It must be a youth-potion of some sorts"

Just the, Miryu used her throw-daggers and threw it towards the children, merely grazing off a few hairs on their head. "It is rude to reveal a woman's age," she told them, before Hiko cut them off and told Miryu that she would be an old maid soon, and he would not forgive her if she did not provide him with a few more grandchildren. "Shishou!"

"Can I go on?" Hiko quickly retorted, turning towards the intruders while Miryu retrieved her dagger. "I know that you know Kenshin, but why are you here?" Once again, the children went into a mess, but a mess trying to tell Hiko that Kaoru was there to be with Kenshin. "Well, I do not know why, but that piece of wood seems to be pretty popular... Kenshin, carry that bucket to the stream and fill it with water. Go with Miryu, when you come back, I will decide whether or not to teach you the ougi..."

He then turned his attention towards Misao, Yahiko and Kaoru. He had stopped getting information regarding Kenshin ever since the Bakumatsu ended. He needed information from them, and Miryu, he knew that she would defend Kenshin whenever possible.

It was going to get interesting.


	16. Ascension

"Tell me, Kenshin," Miryu said to Kenshin as the two of them were fetching water per Hiko's orders, while Kaoru, Yahiko and Misao remained with him in his house. "How is meeting with Shishou again after so long?" Kenshin looked at her and smiled. He knew that what she had wanted for the past fifteen years was this reunion… Heck, she even suggested that the two of them go back to their Shishou after they left the Ishin-Ishishi ten years ago… There was an evident sense of joy in her, but at the same time, a slight sense of fear… and he wondered why.

Well, Miryu was an enigma, even to one as himself. No one knew what she was thinking about save for herself, and it seemed only Hiko was able to see through her ruses. "It was as if time had not ceased between the two of us," he told her honestly. "But he certainly has got… crabbier."

Those words made her laugh non-stop. "He thinks that he can live without much human contact," she added, still smiling, "But it is quite different, actually…" During her childhood, it always had been the three of them on this mountain alone, and now… She was starting a family in Tokyo, while he had avoided Kyoto for ten years. There was no wonder really, why Hiko Seijurou had become more and more unsociable than he already was in the first place.

"Have you two gossiped enough about me?" Hiko's voice cut through their minds. Was the walk to the stream really that short? It was impossible! It used to be so far when they were but children… Looking around, it was only then did Kenshin realize that they were back in their Shishou's house, guests included as well. Only Miryu had the gall to reply that they actually had more to go, which did little to ruffle his feathers. "Your friends here have told me that in the ten years of the Meiji era, you have wandered throughout Japan as a rurouni, righting the wrongs you see… Tell me, did you do it out of the teachings of the Mitsurugi Ryuu, or out of your own guilt?"

It was a question that Kenshin answered each waking moment ever since he was schooled by Hiko, ever since he became a rurouni, even as he was hitokiri. "It was both," he answered firmly. If there was one thing about getting around Hiko, it was to be finite and resolute. "The suffering of the people, even in an age of peace, cannot be ignored, for whatever reason. It was why I left in the first place as well."

Thankfully, it was an answer that pleased Hiko. So, what the children had said was true indeed. Kenshin was a fool, but not that big a fool as he had suspected. For the last ten years, what news Miryu had given him were not outright mistruths to ease his heart as well… "Even if you are a fool, you still talk sense when you are up to it," Hiko muttered under his breath, those words of praise barely inaudible save for Miryu and Kenshin. Really, it was one of those few moments where Hiko actually showed that he knew how good his apprentices were. "Alright, I shall grant you this one last request. I shall teach you the ougi, as I have taught Miryu."

It was an answer that pleased not only Kenshin, but everyone else as well. Finally, Kenshin could reach new heights in his skill, and he would not have to kill Shishio Makoto to defeat him. "I'm glad that you finally came to your senses, old man," Miryu told Hiko, who once again brought the issue of his grandchildren to counter her "attack" upon him, causing her to blush to no end.

"As a generous and compassionate man, I cannot suffer this Shishio character to take over my country," Hiko added as he went through the door with Kenshin, "And to make things worse, I don't have the time to look for another male apprentice, and train him in time…" There were more face faults around, not did he cared anyways. "Come to think of it, I could do it myself if I wanted, but, I'd just rather not to deal with that." It was evident that Miryu and Kenshin showed signs of retaliating, but as always, he defeated the two of them, just because he was their Shishou. "The two of you have a great responsibility, and I hope that you will be able to take him out."

With a scoff, Miryu said, "Don't worry about it," while she nudged Kaoru to say something. Really, the girl came all the way to Kyoto just to see Kenshin… The least she could do for herself was to speak to him, if she failed to confess how much she loved him. Oh, she knew much. The way Kenshin was around her, it was no different than when he was with Tomoe, and she knew that he dearly loved his late wife. Although Kenshin might be clouded with guilt over Tomoe's death still, there was no shred of evidence that he had feelings for the young master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu.

"Kenshin…" Kaoru called to him in a small voice, causing Kenshin to stop in his tracks. "Are you angry with me for coming here, even if I knew how dangerous it was?"

Angry? Kenshin could never be angry with an angel like her. Never. Taking a deep breath, he answered, "Half of me is," without looking at her. "But the other half is relieved de gozaran. Please, be careful, you might never know where Shishio's men would lurk."

"Don't worry, Nathan will take care of them," Miryu reassured, blatantly ignoring Hiko's snort. Yes, her husband may not be used to combat in the manner of the Japanese, but he was an extremely capable warrior. He just needed a little polishing, is all.

With that, she left with Hiko and Kenshin to the ledge before the waterfall, where they had always trained. She knew what fate lied to the two men when the ougi was to be passed down, and she knew it very well. If Kenshin failed, there was absolutely no possibility that he could survive, and she would have to face Shishio and his cohorts all alone, and she did not want that to happen.

"Before we begin, I must say this to you," Hiko told Kenshin, his katana already raised, the cutting edge facing him as they had always trained. "When this training is complete, you might gain enough power equal to mine… sorry… just touch my level of skill, like Miryu… But do not get to sure of yourself." There was a great deal of seriousness in his tone of voice, and at once, Kenshin knew that whatever he had said was not to be taken lightly. "If you bear your burden alone and try to protect others by sacrificing yourself, the Meiji era will not be easy for you, likewise, it is not easy to gain happiness alone. If you fail, the girl who came to Kyoto for you will be sad and lonely for the rest of her life…"

* * *

_Amakakeru-Ryu-No-Hirameki… The flash of the dragon descending from the heavens… So this was what it was like, to gain such speed and power with just one strike… Miryu looked at her own bokken, purposely purchased for this reason alone, or rather, pieces of it scattered around her… This was what it meant, to live, to strive for the goals of the Mitsurugi Ryuu. "Shishou… if we were using real katana…" she told Hiko, who was now sporting a diagonal bruise across his broad chest as she helped him to stand. "You would have been dead…"_

_Hiko nodded somberly. "This is the way of our Ryuu," he told her, slightly wheezing. "You have done very well, Miryu, but because of who you are, I cannot make you the Fourteenth Master, and it has no matter of your gender." Women in Japan were oppressed as much as the poor, regarded so lowly that men would turn to other men for love… He knew that her mother was of the secret and sacred Line of the Dragons, and she was its scion. She could not live to be killed by her own apprentice in the future. She needed to live, and to carry on her linage, the only pride of the women of the samurai. "Besides, I did not raise you just to kill you, your mother would never, ever forgive me if I did."_

"_I… do not know what to say…" she replied, her usual smile disappearing. "But one day, Kenshin will return… and you will…" Tears started to form in her sapphire eyes. She could not imagine a life where her Shishou, the man who was supposed to be her father, the man who loved her like one, was not there with her. _

_Instead of brushing her worries aside, Hiko brusquely said, "Ahou, this is the way of all Hiko Seijurou throughout the times," In a way, it was true. For with the power the ougi grants a warrior, there could not be two of the same level at the same time… It would overthrow the balance of power… "I killed my own master like this, do not forget that…"

* * *

_

That was fifteen years ago. For her love of her Shishou, Miryu chose to stay a year longer before she went into the city to look for Kenshin, and for the longest time, she did not want Kenshin to go back to Hiko and resume his training. But as time passed, she gradually saw that even she could not stop what was to pass. At least now, what Kenshin was using was a sakabattou, and no great harm would come to Hiko, but what about Kenshin?

"You have to do it, no matter what," she told Kenshin.

And so, the final stages of Kenshin's training began, with the moon high above them, and the stars watching over them, like so many years ago. But the innocence of childhood was removed, replaced with a sense of urgency, of the need to reach new heights to relieve the suffering of the populace.

* * *

Nagasaki Hiryuko looked at the moon from the entrance of Shishio's hideout, drawn to its beauty. At this time, there was no doubt that Battousai had returned to the abode of his Master, to learn the final secrets of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, the secrets that were not passed down in the Line of Dragons… "What could it be?" she asked herself for the umpteenth time. For three hundred years, Miryu was the only Ryujou that had them, and now that she had to acquire them for herself. For too long their linage had to hide in the shadows of men, for too long that they had been compliant and subservient.

_To swing the katana for the weak and the defenseless_, the male line had deformed the Mitsurugi Ryuu into some charitable gift unto the world from being a divine gift given to her children; it was not what Hiryuko could stand for. That was why she needed Battousai and Battouryu to be killed. However, it was this spirit that allowed the Mitsurugi Ryuu to survive through thirteen Hiko Seijurou…

"Soon, you will come and fight your enemies," she told her younger cousin in her mind, "and soon, you will surrender the secrets that you know, and once again, the Ryujou will prevail…"

There was no other way. Only she could do it, to maintain the purity of her mother-ancestors, she had to destroy the scion of her own line… Any offspring from young Algren Miryu would be tainted by gaijin blood, sacrilege enough to smear the good names and powers of their many foremothers. The line would end with her, as a result, but at least, it remained untarnished…

At least, that was what she thought.


	17. Ougi

_Death struck through the wide plain that night harder than lightning. Usually, the bandits would attack the odd wanderer, or two, but not on a scale like this. Miryu carefully shadowed Hiko's footsteps, treading carefully where he had stepped as her Shishou killed the bandits one by one. Soon, they came to a man who had the audacity to murder three women huddled over a child older than Miryu was, the last one, had been grabbed by her hair, and a katana was slid through her neck. Death was instant._

"_Who are you?" the man asked Hiko when he noticed his comrades dying around him, the last one, decapitated into several pieces. Thankfully, he did not notice Miryu's presence, for with her small body, she was hidden perfectly behind Hiko's broad exterior. _

_Scoffing, Hiko raised his katana and said, "There is no need for me to reveal my name to a dead man." The ruffian was dead before he could say anything else. In his heart, Hiko knew that Miryu was not meant for a life like this. Every single time he raised his katana to defend those who could not do so themselves, every single time he spilt blood for their sakes, Miryu would always be right behind him, watching him… But he knew that she was strong, as much as she was resilient, just like her mother… _

_Once he made sure the surroundings were safe, Miryu began to step out of his shadow, grasping as much of his cape as her little hands could, and as tightly. Even the bravest of adults would have cringed at such a sight, of corpses littered like paperweights; Hiko could not blame her for being afraid… "Stay here," he told her firmly, and she nodded obediently, although she eyed the red-haired boy curiously. "You're pretty unlucky, boy," he told the boy, who just stared at the dead, traumatized, no doubt. "Since the coming of the Black Ships, the Bakufu has failed to keep the peace, ronin turn into bandits just to survive… I just happened to be here to take revenge for you." Still, there was no response… It did not matter. "Go to the village nearby, they will take care of you…"

* * *

_

It was nineteen years ago…

* * *

Miryu was peeling an orange to eat while Hiko was seated a rock, Kenshin sprawled on the ground before them. There was little chance for them to stop training, and Kenshin knew it very well, but he was just too… damned tired. Although he was in peak physical form, he was no longer an energetic teenager, and a few day's worth of getting beaten up by Hiko… It really made him wonder how he and Miryu had survived their training. "Wake up," Hiko ordered, while Kenshin continued to pant. "If you don't get up, I'll continue to remember everything that happened in the past, like the last time you wet the bed the autumn you were eleven…" It was enough for Kenshin to rise and glare at his Shishou. "Or the day you were so hungry that you ate those mushrooms and almost died."

There was no surprise that Miryu would burst out in laughter when Hiko said those words. Yes, she had her fair share of mishaps as well, but since Kenshin's were now in focus, she just could not resist it. She had been with the two of them ever since Hiko decided to retrain Kenshin, just happy that they were almost back in the days of her childhood, although she had no part of the instruction and the training, whatsoever. "Shishou, if you could remember those embarrassing moments that even I have forgotten, you would have to be truly evil," Kenshin muttered.

Hiko raised an eyebrow. A gesture which said volumes about what he was going to say next. Rising to his full height, towering above Kenshin, Hiko said, "What are you talking about, you show up after leaving for fifteen years and I've been training with you for the whole week! You cannot ask for a better Master." Well, that part held some truth. Most teachers would have already abandoned their apprentices when this kind of thing happens to them. But not Hiko Seijurou. He was just too lazy and uncaring to take another apprentice. "And now, I have grown tired of this… If you cannot hit me in the next round, I will not teach you the ougi."

Miryu looked at both men as they started to stare at one another. Despite their differences in build and in personality, the two of them had one common characteristic. They were equally stubborn. None of them was going to let down on what they had decided to do, and Kenshin knew that if he had to learn the ougi, he would have to work for it, and work hard. If Miryu could do it, there was no possibility that he could not. At least, it was where logic had resided.

"Hiko Seijurou, the Thirteenth Master of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu," Kenshin muttered under his breath. "Sneaky, tactless, anti-social," one by one, Kenshin began to list down Hiko's shortcomings, "As someone who knows my past, he is a million times worse than Saito…" But there were other things as well. This was a man who could see through any cheap tricks up his sleeves, and there was no doubt that he was the singular most powerful warrior that he had ever known. If the coming attack was his last, he had to do it with his body and soul.

_Go…_ Miryu said to both men in her heart as Kenshin looked towards the sky and leapt upwards, with Hiko following soon after. Kenshin would use his favorite, Ryu-Tsui-Sen, and to counter it, Hiko would use Ryu-Sho-Sen. The impact was so great, that even the flow of the waterfall's water was affect for a slight moment. However, when Kenshin landed, he did so on his head, and blacked out once again. "You do not know how desperate he is to learn the ougi," she told Hiko, breaking her silence. "Shishou, if he failed, please, consider…"

"Ahou, I did not say that he did not manage to hit me at all," Hiko growled. And when he woke Kenshin up, he told the other man, "It was not a perfect hit, but you hit me nonetheless." There it was, where Kenshin had struck him, a nick in his arm-guards. "I shall indeed teach you the ougi."

* * *

From the waterfall, the trio moved to the clearing in front of Hiko's house, where there was more space to run from one point to the other in relative safety. It was then when Kenshin noticed that Miryu had retrieved her own katana, with a life-sized puppet that she had constructed standing right next to him.

Hiko told him that he was not to move, lest he be killed, and immediately, Kenshin did as he was told. One by one, Hiko lectured upon the nine basic cuts that kenjutsu was based upon, and that all other techniques were based on these nine cuts, as well as the maneuvers to defend against them. And after he had finished, Kenshin saw that both he and Miryu were in the same stance, and in mere seconds, the attack had flashed before him, with nine small cuts on each point that Hiko had just told him about, while Miryu's puppet was obviously cut into the corresponding pieces.

It happened so fast that if Kenshin had blinked, he would have missed it completely. "If you move with the shinsoku [god-like speed] of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, and attack those nine points, you will be unstoppable. This is Ku-Zu-Ryu-Sen, and the technique that I am best at," Hiko said with a flashy smile, as though a random passing teenage girl would die of his handsomeness.

It was unbelievable, and it was only then did Kenshin comprehend how powerful Miryu actually was. She was side by side Hiko, her movements completely matching his, and until now, he was under the impression that she was still on the same level as he was… But that flare of Ki that had come from her, it almost equaled that of Hiko's… She was able to mask her abilities, even to him, for fifteen years… His respect for both of them immediately grew by leaps and bounds…

"Now, you try," Hiko said, after Miryu had cleared the debris, leaving Kenshin shocked to no end, arguing that it was impossible, because he had only seen it once. "You can't learn this technique just by watching, but by doing it! Wasn't that how I always taught you?"

Kenshin was oblivious. But then, he remembered the number of beatings that he and Miryu had to endure during the training, and realized that Hiko was right. "I wondered how we survived it…" Kenshin muttered, reduced into a ball while Hiko burst out in cruel laughter before telling him that in his genius, Hiko was able to hold back enough that they could take his attacks.

"You were not able to move, but it does not mean that you could not see it," Miryu said gently, while mumbling words at Hiko, for being an old, conceited cow, or at least that was what Kenshin heard. Miryu was right, though, and Kenshin knew that Miryu was always right.

He mimicked Hiko's movements, only to find that Hiko returned the attack as well, matching every single one of his blows. After both Ku-Zu-Ryu-Sen were complete, he crashed onto the ground, surprised, and demoralized. If he could not deliver a perfect attack, how could he ever defeat Shishio?

However, it seemed that Hiko read his mind completely. "No, it was a perfect attack, but because of the differences in the strength of arm, and weight, you are overwhelmingly my inferior… These aspects cannot be gained in a short term's worth of training, but there is one way to counter it, and that is the ougi… You didn't really think that Ku-Zu-Ryu-Sen was the ougi, did you? Even an ahou like Miryu saw through it."

"What did you call me?" Miryu shouted angrily, one of her rare outbursts on Hiko. "You almost gave me a fright that day! I should have killed you in your sleep when I had the chance!" Her sapphire eyes quickly turned to amber as Kenshin tried to restrain her, she, the only woman who ever mastered the ougi. By right, she was to carry on the title of Hiko Seijurou XIV if she was a man, and even then, Hiko still spared no quarter in giving her a hard time.

The time of play had ended, and it was time for Kenshin to figure out the way to break the Ku-Zu-Ryu-Sen, and in the end, he sheathed his sakabattou. There was nothing to stop the nine attacks unless he attacked first, and for the first time, Hiko had something good to say about it. "Good, at least you have an idea of what to do. Beyond the shinsoku of Battou-jutsu, there is also, one that surpasses it, chou-shinsoku [literally beyond shinsoku], and this is the true nature of Amakakeru-Ryu-No-Hirameki… However, your sakabattou will mar the speed of the attack, are you sure that you will be able to do it?"

"I am willing to risk my life for it…" Kenshin replied, he too, having amber in his eyes. It was not rage, it was resolve, and this was always evident in both Hiko's apprentices. He knew that because of their resolve, they were strong beyond belief, but that did not mean, that they were no longer fools.

"If you still think like that, you really are risking your life, baka," Hiko berated once again. "I will give you one night to think it over, and find what you have been lacking. At dawn, your time of reckoning would come."

Miryu looked at the both of them, and knew that nothing could be said. She spent half the night with Kenshin, and the other half, with Hiko. The three of them did not have any sleep at all, and when the rain fell… it really brought back memories of the past.

* * *

"_Nobody came?" Hiko asked the man who always sold him his Sake. "But…"_

_The man just shook his head. "This village is so quiet that not even a cat passes by, the only child that passed by this week is Miryu-chan, right now."_

_Where could the boy have gone to? Hiko nodded and paid the man before leaving with Miryu. "Shishou, could the boy have… killed himself?" She had heard whispers from the grownups that people would do such things when they were utterly overcome by sadness. Who knows if the bandits killed the people most dear to the boy? _

_Hiko did not answer Miryu's question, but prayed that nothing of the sort happened. But just to be safe, he would go back to where the massacre had happened, and he would at least help the child to have a proper burial. But what they saw shocked them to no end. The entire place was filled with crosses made from dead branches, and not a corpse in sight. Only the boy was there, and he seemed to have toiled the whole night. _

"_Boy, did you do this?" Hiko asked, and the child nodded. He told them that his parents had passed on the previous year, and he was sold to those slavers, and met the three women who protected him, even if he tried to hold the bandits off… As a tribute to those women, Hiko poured some of his Sake over the stones that marked their graves. "Man or woman, it is a shame that they attained Nirvana without tasting Sake," he told him. "Tell me, what is your name?"_

_The boy looked at him, revealing the softest eyes of violet. He had the strangest coloring indeed, but that did not matter. "Shinta…" he replied, while Miryu introduced herself to him. _If he is a boy, name him "Kenshin", the heart of the sword, but if she is a girl, name her "Miryu", the beautiful dragon…_ Ryumiko's final words resonated in Hiko's mind. He would have the children that he and she had always dreamed of, and he would raise them to be the greatest warriors in all of Japan. _

"_It is too soft for a swordsman," Hiko told Shinta. "From now on, you shall be Kenshin. The two of you, shall receive the greatest weapon of all!"

* * *

_

It was nineteen years ago.

* * *

Morning came quickly, and once again, Kenshin faced Hiko in battle. "So, have you found what you have been looking for?" Hiko asked him, only to have met with a negative answer. "Then, you are at the end of your road, for an incomplete man such as you shall never defeat Shishio, because you cannot even defeat the demon that you have repressed for so long. If I allow you to live, you would have no ability to anyways… Think of it as my last gift to you as your Shishou."

With that, he removed his cloak, and with the swing of his katana, creating a small chasm upon the ground. The cloak that he always wore was then revealed to have weights attached to it, weighing ten kan each, or thirty kilograms, which acted to limit the power of Hiko Seijurou in times of peace. Now that Hiko had taken it off, he would be at his full power.

Miryu saw Kenshin's hand shaking. It was what she had done too, for even with the cloak on, Hiko was able to beat the living daylights out of them. She had been using bokken when she learnt the ougi, and it completely disintegrated at the impact… She just hoped that Kenshin knew what he was doing. Amakakeru-Ryu-No-Hirameki could not be taught in any way. It had to be discovered. And for Kenshin's sake, he had to do it now.

"Meet your end!" Hiko shouted as he came charging towards Kenshin, who delivered a battle-cry as he waited for Hiko to get in range. _Kenshin, I am getting married!_ Miryu's voice came into his head. _Baka, it is the rurouni I want to remain, not Battousai!_ Kaoru… _You're so cool!_ Yahiko… There were people who cared about him, people who loved him… He could not die now. He still had to defeat Shishio Makoto… Yes, he could not die now!

It happened within a flash. The fifteenth time in history, the realization of an heir of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu of the ougi. "Yes, this is it…" Hiko murmured. "These ten years, you have been mocked by guilt and shame, so much that you do not see your own life worthy to be appreciated, which held back your strength, allowing the hitokiri to surface. Now, you know that there is nothing stronger than the will to live, because they will never be truly happy without you… Live on, Kenshin! Live, and take care of Miryu for me… I loved a woman once, and we prayed to have children like the two of you… Do not think of this as the breaking of your vows, Kenshin. It is a tradition of our Ryuu, likewise, I have killed my own Shishou in the same manner…"

With that, Hiko Seijurou XIII collapsed into a puddle of water, with Miryu and Kenshin screaming , "Shishou!"


	18. Oniwabanshuu

The night was calm, but that calm was betrayed. Algren's eyes shot open when he felt the presence of many individuals coming towards the Aoiya, shuffling, scuttling, most probably ninja, as he had witnessed before the previous year. Ninja of a different organization trying to infiltrate the Oniwabanshuu, which had probably the largest network in Japan… Could they even be such fools?

Readying his gun, he quickly went downstairs to check on the others, before meeting one such ninja himself, who threw a three-inch long spike at him, one that opened into a lotus flower upon contact with the wooden beam behind him as he ducked. Kicking the ninja at the shin, Algren hit him at the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

"It is good to see that you are not so trigger-happy after all," Graham said, panting as if he had been running for miles. Algren smiled inwardly. This man was a survivor, there was no need to worry about him even in the most dire of situations. "Okina and the others have already confronted the rest of them, old, boy. Seems like Shishio Makoto was behind this."

"He always is," the American muttered, silently hoping that nothing of the sort would happen to Miryu and Kenshin while the latter was undergoing his training… Wait a minute; they should be fine, seeing that they were with their Master… "But why attack this place? I thought hardly anyone knows that the Oniwabanshuu is still active…"

Okina was the one who came with the answer, accompanied by Omasu, Okon, Shiro and Kuro. "There is only one person, and no other," he told Algren and Graham, disappointment and anger playing in his old, experienced eyes. "It was Aoshi. Only he could have told Shishio Makoto…"

* * *

"_I want you to find Battousai and Battouryu for me," Aoshi told Okina at the shop at the corner of a busy street. "I need to defeat them to gain the title of the 'strongest' for our organization." The coldness of his eyes, it was even more intense than what it had been years ago. _

_Deep down, Okina knew that this search for the two people who would deliver Japan from Shishio's clutches were not the ones that he wanted to defeat. He had to defeat his own guilt, shame and remorse. Shinomori Aoshi had clouded himself from the truth, and had fallen into a darkness that only he could pull himself fro, and no others. "You do not need vengeance, Aoshi," Okina told the younger man, forgetting the formality to be used with his Okashira. "You need closure, and a place to rest your heart."_

_Turning away, Aoshi said, "If you are not with me, you are against me… I have given you my warning…

* * *

_

"That boy has gone off the line," Okina told the two gaijin. "He must be stopped before more damage is done…"

Those were the words of a man that has found his enemy, a man declaring war. "If there is need to defeat Shinomori Aoshi, I will go," he told Okina. Granted, his skills as a swordsman was in a total different style than those Japanese were used to, but he was confidant that he could hold out on his own. _Nathan, we Oriental swordsmen use Ki, the internal energy within ourselves more than anything,_ Miryu once told him. _The stronger the Ki, the more powerful the swordsman, even if his or her skills are not that profound…_

The old man went towards Algren and patted him on the shoulder. "My good man, I cannot allow to risk this," he told him. "You have just been married a year to a most beautiful and talented woman, you would be the last person to be caught up in a quarrel that is not yours to begin with. I was the one who gave Aoshi all his skills, and I will be the one who will take them back."

Nodding, Algren could not help but to agree with Okina, not because he feared for his life, but because he knew that there would be nothing to stop Okina from facing off with Aoshi. "But you have some interrogating to do, it seems," he said, looking at Okon and Omasu, who were holding candles and nails. "Would you like some help?"

* * *

"Are you sure that your plans would work, Houji?" Hiryuko asked Shishio's advisor. No, he was her advisor as well, so long she was in this bargain with Shishio. She would help him destroy Algren Battouryu, and all his resources and manpower was half hers. "The Oniwabanshuu are not to be taken lightly."

However, Houji seemed to be confidant. "The Kyousoushuu are our elite corps, which specializes in night operations," he told her, his eyes laying strongly on Aoshi, whose cold demeanor was starting to affect those in the room. "There is no need to use one of the Juppon Gatana… A handkerchief is sometimes too much to catch rats."

Aoshi hoped that he was right. The keyword was "hoped", of course. He was, is, the Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu, and he knew that nothing got past Okina, nothing at all. And if Houji's reports were true, the American formerly hired to train the Imperial Army was there as well, and he had heard a great deal about this Nathan Algren, apart from him marrying Battouryu, that he was a strategist as great as he was a marksman with a gun. However, guns were useless here, where the sword was still of use, and not forgotten.

Needless to say, Hiryuko's presumptions were right. None of the Kyosoushuu that were deployed had returned by the next morning, save for one. And the worse thing was, that man returned with his arms nailed onto a plank of wood, almost as if he had been crucified, except for his legs, and on his back, words were carved onto his raw flesh.

_Meet me at the old lookout post. Come alone._ It was a message from Okina, that much Aoshi could tell. "It looks like I still have to get rid of the old man myself," he told Houji and Hiryuko. "It would take a bigger handkerchief to catch those rats… Now, if you would excuse me…"

* * *

Morning came, and Okina had already left before dawn. Algren knew that nothing good would come out of this… There was a high possibility that both Aoshi and Okina would have to suffer a huge amount of injuries if they would not die from this duel. However, there was nothing that he could have done to stop Okina from attempting such a risk, not even the people from his own organization.

"Okina and Ao-sama are as stubborn as one another," Okon told him as they looked at Okina leaving the Aoiya. "I worry for them… We would not be able to function without either of them, unless a new Okashira is chosen…"

"Don't worry, perhaps somehow, someone would come and stop them…" Algren thought wishfully. "And let's hope that it is not Misao…" He had known Misao for a couple of days now, and he utterly marveled at how much energy the girl had, particularly towards her efforts to locate Aoshi. Now that he was here, it was ironic, that it was best that she did not see him at the moment…

The hand of fate was a cruel one indeed. In all actuality, it was Misao who would run up to the old lookout post to stop the two of them, or at least, try to. The previous night, as she was leading Kaoru and Yahiko back to the Aoiya, she had heard from them that the four members of the Oniwabanshuu that had followed Aoshi to protect Edo Castle were all dead, and Aoshi was on the road of vengeance, seeking the title of the strongest.

* * *

"_It's not true!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, not caring who would hear her. "All four of them were the best onmitsu ever!" Perhaps in times of utter danger, Hyotokko or Beshimi would be the victims, but not the others… It was impossible! "Tell me that it's not true!"_

_Yahiko was the one who spoke to her, after drawing a deep breath. "No one could defeat the might of a Gatling gun… No one, even Hannya." When he had went with Kenshin to visit Miryu and Algren, they had told them about the last stand of the samurai, where they had faced not only Howitzer cannons, but also three new Gatling guns, fresh from the American assembly lines… It was a gruesome sight that he had witnessed before, and he was sure that he would not witness it again.

* * *

_

She had been running all night and all morning. From Hiko's mountain, back to the Aoiya, and straight towards the lookout post, Misao had not stopped. Even Okina had taken out his tonfa and his old uniform, a sign that he was deadly serious on his mission that he would not be backing out… She just hoped that she would not be too late.

_One man is the one that she loves the most,_ Omasu's words to the others rang in her ears, _the other is the man that she respects the most… I hope for her sake that both of them make it out alive…_ And the Gods above knew that she thought so too.

Soon, the lookout was in sight, and her heard raced even faster, even if her footsteps had slowed down. _Please, let nothing happen to them_, she prayed inwardly and opened the door, finding Aoshi standing over Okina, both looking seemingly unharmed.

Seconds later, blood spewed forth from the old man's body, as if rivers of the red liquid had been cut from his body. Okina collapsed, and Aoshi was the one who had caused it. "Ao-sama…" she called towards her Okashira, the man that had cared for her in her childhood, softly. "Why?"

Shinomori Aoshi did not look at her, opting to remove himself from the scene as soon as possible. He had done his part, and now, Shishio Makoto and Nagasaki Hiryuko would have to deliver either Battousai and Battouryu to him and him alone. "If you dare to interfere, I will kill you as well."

* * *

"Do you believe in Hell?" Shishio asked Houji over a glass of red wine, but the man answered that there was nothingness that follows a person's death, not eternal punishment or torture. Shishio just begged to differ. "I think that there is a hell. Take Battouryu, for example. Her parents died on the day she was born, and she was thrust into a world of violence and blood with Battousai. And in the new age of peace, she loses her comrades and her other teacher, Katsumoto Moritsugu for the new ideals that our nation sells herself in… She has been in hell, as well as Battousai. And this Okina, he has been betrayed by the man he had cared for like a son… Is this not hell?"

Hiryuko raised an eyebrow. She too, had been in utter hell before. The darkness of the ages could not be compared to the darkness that had covered her entire lifetime… She had been cast out by the new age, and even in the old, she had not been honored as a true daughter of the dragons… She had only been used as a free warrior… She had been nothing but a female with a sword in the world of men…

Taking off his gloves, Shishio approached Houji until his advisor had his back against the wall. That was when he pushed his hand onto the other man's forehead, burning it with his own body temperature. "I had been burnt, throughout my whole body, and experienced true, physical Hell, even until now. Because all my sweat glands have been sealed, my body temperature soars to amazing fights, so much that I seem to be burning constantly… Is this not Hell? Houji, you are shaking… Are you afraid?"

"Quite the reverse, Shishio-sama," Houji told Shishio. "I am shaking, out of joy. Those dogs in the government, they have nothing on you, a leader of true caliber and vision. I will go to the ends of the earth for your cause, Shishio-sama. Your goals, and that of Nagasaki-sama's will go down in the annals of history!"

Shishio smiled, and removed his hand. "You are ready, Houji," he told the man, looking at Hiryuko, who was smiling as well. "We will have to rely on you more, from now on."


	19. Haste

Kenshin did not know how long he had slept, but what he did know was that he was kicked awake by Hiko Seijurou XIII, with Miryu standing beside Algren, who seemed to have made his way to the mountain. "Shishou?" he asked quizzically, astounded that Hiko had recovered so quickly. However, he really was using a sakabattou, it really should have not been a problem with Hiko, or was it? He did not have time for rhetorical questions, and in an unexpected move, he dashed towards Hiko in all happiness and relief that he had in him.

If only Hiko returned his enthusiasm. Side-stepping to the left, the other man successfully evaded him, leaving Kenshin to knock the shelf against the wall, mumbling "Oroooo" until Miryu interrupted them by clearing her throat.

"I do not take lightly to being hugged by men," Hiko warned Kenshin. "Never. Do. It. Again."

If looks could kill, Algren was sure that Kenshin was already minced meat for Hiko's afternoon lunch. Unperturbed, Kenshin looked at Hiko with more than just relief and said, "At least the medicine worked…" This made Miryu break into a bout of uncontrollable laughter while Hiko took up the packet of the supposed "medicine".

With a raised eyebrow, Hiko said, "This was a placebo, baka-deshi." _Why the hell did the honorable Kami ever thought to bless me with such a baka for an apprentice?_ Hiko cursed inwardly, while Miryu explained to Algren that Kenshin had unwittingly ingested a laughing mushroom out of hunger, and thought that his death was nigh, endlessly pleading to Hiko and Miryu to save him before he died out of laughing too much. "I simply mixed up anything to make you think that you had some sort of medicine."

"You seem to have a very… interesting childhood, Kenshin," Algren added, while Hiko picked up Kenshin's sakabattou to inspect it. Of course, Karma was a fair thing, and he was sure that one day, Kenshin would have the chance to spill everything on Miryu as well, judging by Kenshin's look of vengeance towards Miryu, who returned a similar glare.

"As I was saying, I did not raise the two of you in the principles of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu just to have you kill each other," Hiko chided the both of them… Nearly approaching their thirties and still, they were acting like children. "The secret of my… survival of the ordeal was in the sakabattou," he proclaimed, indicating at the handle of the weapon. "Look here, this rivet protrudes so it would shake just enough whether it is drawn enough, absorbing the power of the Amakakeru-Ryu-No-Hirameki, and is responsive to the intentions of its bearer. A very good sword indeed…" Kenshin smiled, and remembered Shakku's last words to him. _This is not my finest work of art yet, come back when this one is broken, I shall give you another one._ "At least, my genius was not wasted on you after all," Hiko added proudly. "Now, be gone with you. All three of you have more important things to do than just sitting here."

* * *

It was already afternoon when Kenshin, Algren and Miryu started to leave Hiko's mountain abode. "Shishou, thank you, for everything," Kenshin said, bowing to Hiko in reverence. No matter how much they apparently disliked one another, there was nothing to deny that Miryu and Kenshin respected Hiko to a level of almost worshipping him, and that his teachings were the greatest influence in the way they had lived their lives.

Hiko smiled at his words, an occasion of utmost rarity. "Wait, this cloak, it is for you," Hiko told Kenshin. "As I said, Miryu is of the Ryujou Line, thus unable to succeed me as the Fourteenth Master of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, but you have also completed your training. It is rightfully yours."

Kenshin looked at the cloak and imagined himself wearing it. Flinching, he rejected the offer. "I do not think it would suit Sessha very well, Shishou," he mumbled after the image flashed out of his mind. "Even though I have learnt the ougi, I only desire to inherit the principles of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, not the Ryuu itself. Forgive me…"

"Three hundred years have bearers of the ougi bore this cloak… It is outright selfish of you, Kenshin," Hiko replied. However, he knew that this would happen. They were in a new age, and the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu would be consumed by it. Even if the early years of the Meiji era still needed swordsmen, the same could not be said for the future. In a huff, he replaced the cloak upon his shoulders, and turned towards his house to have another round of Sake before going back to his ceramics.

But, unluckily for him, Miryu and Kenshin seemed to have another request. "Shishou, before we leave, can you please take care of those at the Aoiya for us?" Miryu asked, her voice almost pleading. She could put Algren in charge of the situation, but there was no telling what Shishio would have in store for them… There was no response from Hiko, and she was about to press further, but in the end, Hiko sighed.

"Remember that I did not train the both of you just to bring you misery," he told them sternly. "Just go and defeat Shishio Makoto, don't worry about it too much."

Smiling, the two of them thanked Hiko and went on their way back into the city with Algren.

* * *

In the police headquarters of Kyoto city, Graham was standing next to Saito in his office, with the local police chief, a rather portly man with a small, triangular-shaped beard. "They should have been here by now," the Englishman said, looking at his pocket-watch. Just a few hours ago, Algren had left for Hiko's place to pick up Miryu and Kenshin, where they would get on a carriage from the nearest police station to get to the headquarters.

And speaking of the devil, the sounds of the neighing of horses could be heard, and a carriage was stopped just outside of Saito's window. "Ah, there they are!" the police chief in elation. He had never seen Battousai and Battouryu before, but like the countless people in Japan, he had heard of how powerful the two of them were. Along with Battouryu's husband who was formerly hired to train the Japanese army, they would make an invincible team indeed.

Battousai stepped down the carriage first, with his flame-red hair shining like real fire underneath the sun's rays, followed by Battouryu, who was a vision of beauty with her height and her leather suit… Saito sensed something, the disparity of power, so obvious to those who knew the both Kenshin and Miryu was gone. Something had happened, and it made Kenshin evidently more powerful. At least, they would have actual leverage against Shishio, or at least, it was what he had hoped for. "Look at the three of you, riding a carriage on a weekday afternoon like those rich dogs," Saito taunted with a smirk, earning similar expressions in return.

* * *

"A fire…" Miryu murmured, slowly digesting the amount of information that Algren, Graham and Saito had for them. "Just like Miyabe before the Ikeda-ya Affair…" One of the Ishin-Ishishi patriots had once proposed that they burnted Kyoto city down, and move the Emperor to Edo for safety in an ultimate show of violence, but that idea was quickly silenced, for no other leader of the resistance wished to involve innocent deaths. It would make them more unpopular than they already were.

Looking at the multitude of maps sprawled upon the circular table before them, Saito said, "The one you got arrested, Chou of the Juppon Gatana revealed this to us, and just this morning, we arrested another guy who confirmed it. It would happen at 11:59 tonight."

It was strange… somehow. Merely burning the entire city down would not be enough to cause confusion and violence at all. There had to be something else… "They must have something else up their sleeves," Algren said, leaning against the table. Maps were useless to him, because he could not read in Japanese at all, despite his fluency in speaking the language. It was too complicated for him to learn, so he did not bother. However, the geography of the country was not lost to him…

"The Great Kyoto Fire, indeed," Graham said. He was there, because he had an usual amount of news from the underworld, which awed even Saito. "However, it does not equate with the foreign weapon Shishio bought from Shanghai…" There was also another possibility. Small fries like Chou and the other informant could not have been notified of further details of Shishio's plans, with his distrusting nature. "There must be some other place…"

Then, it hit Kenshin. "Osaka…" he said, pointing at the map. "The fire would be modeled after the Ikeda-ya Affair de gozaran… Since Shishio would be taking over the country out of vengeance, he would turn this into a game as well."

Catching onto his train of thought, Miryu said, "Tokugawa Yoshinobu tried to deceive his enemies by fleeing from Osaka to Edo, and the Ishin-Ishishi won the battle of Toba-Fushimi. Shishio would use this, and turn history around. He would _attack_ Tokyo from Osaka… The weapon that Graham told us about could be a warship!"

"So, the true target is Tokyo, the seat of the government," Algren mused. With the fires in Kyoto, Shishio would shift the attention of the police and some portion of the military to Kyoto from Tokyo itself… An ingenious plan indeed… "But who did he buy that warship from?"

This was a question that even Graham could not answer. "I only know that it was from one of the greatest triad chains," the Englishman replied. "Even then, it took much digging to get that out."

The origins of the ship had to wait, as there were more important things to do. Kenshin dashed towards the door, and found Sanosuke standing before him, with a ready grin upon his face. "Leaving me behind again?" he asked, punching Kenshin in the face and catching him. "Not this time, pal." Smiling, Kenshin looked at his young friend and nodded. Sanosuke may not have their combined experience, but there would be a time when the youth would be able to prove his worth. "I've got a lot to tell you while we run…"

It was then when Saito interrupted Sanosuke, like countless times before. "Run?" he asked, "We're taking a carriage, ahou."

* * *

Before long, Miryu, Kenshin, Algren and Graham were in a four-horse carriage with Saito, while Sanosuke was positioned on the roof due to lack of space, or at least, Saito deemed it to be. "Do not worry about the letter that you sent out," the policeman said to them, "But what was it about?"

"Even if the police is there to combat 500 of Shishio's thugs, there would still be a possibility of 500 fires starting de gozaru yo," Kenshin replied. "We have recruited the aid of the Oniwabanshuu in Kyoto to help as well."

Saito nodded. Although the onmistsu organization that was the Oniwabanshuu was almost defunct in the Meiji era, there would still be some use to them, he reasoned. "I telegraphed the police in Osaka," he continued, "However, there is still little chance that we would be able to reach Osaka by midnight, and find that ship."

"Heh, Tokyo won't be as weak as to be unable to defend against a ship, right?" Sanosuke asked, peering into a window. Without a word's notice, Saito thrust his katana through the roof of the carriage, as if trying to kill Sanosuke. Thankfully, he missed.

"No," Algren replied, his ocean-hued eyes looking outside. "Tokyo is weaker than anything. The presence of a foreign ship would utterly throw the government into chaos. Sanosuke, the goal is not to destroy Tokyo itself, but to confuse the government."

All eyes turned to Miryu, who was more familiar to the inner workings of the government that they were. "Nathan is right. Tokyo has no strength to suppress such a threat," she said, with a sigh. "Once the central government falls, so will the entire country, and we will once again be plunged into a state of lawlessness while the politicians start to run around like scattered cattle without their herder… It would be worse than the Bakumatsu, and would take even more time to recover."

Soon, night came upon them, and they began to anticipate Shishio's next move. "Shishio deliberately followed Miryu and Sessha's footsteps," he reasoned, "And in those days, we would hide in plain sight, and strike when the victims did not expect it…"

Graham knew where Kenshin was coming from. "You mean that Shishio would conceal the ship, and anchor it in the open?" he asked, earning a nod from Kenshin. It was already 11.40, looking at his pocket-watch. Looking out the way, the coastline was already visible, and before long, they were in the port.

As it was already midnight, there was not a ship that was moving at all, but one. "That one, with the blowing steam!" Kenshin shouted, pointed at a rather rickety-looking ship as they got out of the carriage.

* * *

Shishio looked through his telescope at found Kenshin and Miryu standing next to Saito, Algren and Graham as well as Sanosuke. "Well, they have finally arrived," he mused to himself, whilst wondering who the other two were. He had never seen them before, not that it mattered.

"You are in luck, Shishio," Hiryuko said in her dulcet voice. "Nathan Algren, your rival for Miryu, is here… But who are the short one and the youth?"

It was a question that Houji answered, always laden with information that his leaders needed. "The other gaijin is Simon Graham, the middleman between the British forces and the Choushu-han during the Bakumatsu, and the young man is Sagara Sanosuke, a famous street-fighter from Tokyo."

"Street-fighter, eh?" Shishio asked. "So, he is basically cannon fodder…"

A small voice interrupted their conversation. "Shishio-san, shall we continue what happened at Shingetsu village?" Soujirou asked, eager to fight Kenshin and Miryu once again. To his dismay, Hiryuko said that there would not be enough time for a duel to the death at all.

"I think that its time to show ourselves," Shishio said, dispelling the boy's dissatisfaction. "Houji, break off the cover…"

* * *

Miryu watched in disbelief as what seemed to be Shishio's ship exploded, revealing a massive steel ship in its place. It was a warship alright, armed with countless guns and cannons. "Graham, how many guns did your Shanghai friends mentioned this ship has?" she asked Graham.

"Well, quite a few, I would guess," the Englishman replied, before stopping his gaze at what seemed to be the "crown jewel" of said ship. It was an Armstrong cannon… "Not good… not good at all…"


	20. Skirmish

Not good, not good at all. What were five warriors and a translator going to do against a metal-clad ship with an Armstrong cannon, it was suicide with a capital "S". And to top it all off, they were just a few feet out of range. "That bastard…" Sanosuke cursed, and was held back by Algren.

"Hold your horses, kid," the American said, "They'll be plenty of time to go after him." Sanosuke was young and hot-headed, and that was his greatest weakness as well his greatest strength. However, the expression on his wife's face told him otherwise. In times like these, it was best to leave him be with Graham, and to "wing it". While Sanosuke was still busy cursing around, he, Kenshin, Miryu and Saito had leapt off the docks and swam towards the ship, using the wooden debris around it to propel themselves upwards from four fronts: Saito and Kenshin from the left and right, Miryu from the front, and Algren from behind.

Quickly, they started to fight towards the middle of the deck, making sure that they used as many generic attacks as possible without revealing whatever techniques they had in their arsenal. "The four of you are indeed foolhardy," Hiryuko proclaimed, leaning her katana against her shoulder. "You are venturing into the proverbial lion's den, and yet you show no fear…"

Miryu looked at her kinswoman and spat. "Nagasaki Hiryuko, I should have known that you were with Shishio…" She had little dealings with the gaijin-looking woman, but she was known to be a rather radical proponent of the Ishin-Ishishi, and had been one that despised all ways of the West, deeming them "impure" and "degrading" to the teachings of old, although she still fought for the Ishin-Ishishi. If Tsubasa Battouryu had been notorious for turning down the Emperor's hand in marriage, she had been infamous for completely denouncing her former allies when they started to deal with Westerners to secure their victory, going rogue at the height of the Bakamatsu.

"You know her?" Algren asked Miryu, looking at the woman now standing beside Shishio. He could see the family resemblance, though. Both women were tall and had the same sapphire eyes and shapely voluptuous figures and preferences for leather body-suits in combat.

Miryu nodded, and said, "She is a Ryujou as well, the cousin of my mother, and a rogue warrior."

Those words made Shishio laugh. "Oh yes, how can we forget, the great _Algren_ Battouryu is a daughter of the samurai through and through?" he asked, "nevertheless, I welcome you to the duel of death, or so I would like to say. But that would be naïve." He looked towards Sanosuke, the young street-fighter dashing towards them through the debris on the water. "You think that you can see through my plans, but I know that you are only decoys. Fire the Gatling guns at the boy!"

Soon enough, the familiar sounds of endless rains of bullets could be heard, aimed towards Sanosuke. However, the boy stopped in his tracks and punched the water, causing a powerful spray of water to tower above him, acting as a shield against the bullets of the Gatling guns.

"That's Anji's Futae-No-Kiwami!" Houji exclaimed while Saito, Kenshin, Miryu and Algren looked on. Indeed, Sanosuke does have his shining moments.

"He is no mere street-fighter!" Shishio cursed behind gritted teeth, not expecting what the youth would do next. Summoning all his strength, Sanosuke threw the grenades in his hands towards the hull of the ship, grenades given to him by his journalist friend in Tokyo.

Saito smirked. Finally, things were going their way. The ship had exploded, throwing most onboard off balance, and no doubt the ship's crew would be running about in panic. "Heh, turns out it was a rust-bucket after all," he commented, still looking at Shishio and Hiryuko. "I would think that you two are running out of ideas."

Hiryuko harrumphed. "I would suspect that you are too scared to face us if you do not attack any sooner!" she exclaimed, unsheathing her katana, causing Kenshin and Miryu to get into their stances. As the seconds passed, she could hear damage reports from every corner of the ship… It was a frightful defeat indeed, but all was not lost. Leaping towards the four of them, she started the attack. Shishio would have to weasel their way out of their mess, and she would have to divert their attentions.

"After all we have done to arm this ship…" Houji said, after receiving a report that they had to evacuate immediately. "Everything we did…"

Shishio looked at the fight that was going on between Hiryuko and their enemies and at Sanosuke, who was swimming towards them at top speed. "Not only the boy. Battouryu and Algren have political allies, while Saito had the intelligence of the police, and Himura saw through my plans. The greatest mistake here is that we have underestimated them!"

Algren had not seen such ferocity, but he knew that it was only a farce, only a mask. This Nagasaki Hiryuko woman fought with great skill, it was undeniable, but she was rather too set in her ways that it was utterly predictable. Although they had not delved into the techniques of each their styles, it could be seen that she was educated in the same manner as Kenshin and Miryu were, taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy in elaborate attacks to deliver more blunt and feral ones: In short, the groundwork of Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu.

He could see that she was not aiming at Saito or Kenshin at all, but at Miryu, her cousin. Every single attack was directed towards her, as if she had a grudge on Miryu for some reason. The two women started to wage war against one another as the ship started to capsize. "Miryu, break it off!" Saito called towards her while the ship started to shake violently.

Miryu looked towards Saito and shouted, "I will if she does!" Knocking the other woman with the end of her katana's handle, she propelled Hiryuko towards the other side of the ship while turning to face Shishio. "I don't know what you have exchanged with Hiryuko, but I will not allow you to taint my House ever again!"

"My dear, it seems the two of you have the same point of view," Shishio replied, chuckling as Hiryuko was recovering from Miryu's attack. "But we would have to continue our fight in another time and place… Seek us out at our headquarters, your best against mine and myself, and I promise all of you that there will be no carelessness on my part."

"Feh," Saito replied, "You seem to have no guts at all to face us…" Time and time again, Shishio Makoto has proven himself to be little more than a coward, evading battle for the second time already. They could have finished it then and there, but Shishio once again changed the venue.

Hiryuko rose and held herself against the railing. "Seek out our headquarters, Rokutsurane Torii Hokora on the northern face of Mt. Hiei," she said, approaching the four of them, before casting a poisonous glances towards Algren and Miryu. Her next movement was completely unanticipated, executed in total secrecy. With a dagger she had kept concealed, she made to stab Miryu in the heart from behind, but Algren saw it, quickly shielded her body with his. Thanks to his quick thinking, she narrowly missed any of his vital organs.

"Nathan!" Miryu shouted, and immediately caught her husband as he collapsed. "You cold-blooded witch, he has no part in any of this!" She could feel his blood started to pour from his wound, and quickly pulled off the dagger, hurling it back to her cousin's thigh while Kenshin tore off strips of his hakama to bind the injury.

"This will ensure that no gaijin will ever pollute the sacred pact of battle between the two of us, _Tsubasa_ Miryu." Hiryuko replied coldly, removing her weapon without so much as gritting her teeth. "You have gone soft, too soft. The mothers of our past would spit on my soul if I had allowed you to live under such disgrace! Think of it as a chance to cast yourself free from such gaijin filth!"

There was no time, they, too had to get off the ship, but with the sea-water, it seemed ultimately difficult without causing Algren more pain. "Just go without me," he told her, wincing as the fire of his injury started to course throughout his body. He would not be a burden to them. "Miryu…" he called, and his wife held his hand in hers. "You'll do fine without me."

"Shut up you idiot!" she scolded before looking at Saito and Kenshin for ideas. By then, Shishio and his retinue had already left with all the emergency life-boats. "I won't leave you to die here, of all places!" She had been assigned to protect him by the Emperor, and she would never forgive herself if he had perished to protect her.

Thankfully, help came at the right moment. Graham had rowed a boat towards the sinking ship just in time, and hurriedly they made their escape. "It's a good thing I found this, you know," the Englishman said, before seeing Algren injured. "By Jove, we'd better get help, quick!"

"I'm fine," Algren wheezed before Miryu tried to silence him in vain. "Kenshin, tell Graham that I'm fine…"

Kenshin just shook his head. "Sessha has seen many stubborn men, but you, Algren-dono, are the most stubborn… However, you might have just saved Miryu's life, and I thank you." The American was madly in love with Miryu, and given his past performance, it was just the sort of thing that he knew that Algren would just do for the beautiful warrior that was his wife.

"Ahou," Saito said, "You could have died there and I would have to find another suitor for Miryu, which she would castrate within seconds. You would be giving me a lot of trouble." He was given the task to row the boat with Graham, an unspoken request that he readily took upon himself.

It would be an honest attempt on Algren's part to try to laugh that Saito's snide remark, but he ended up coughing, causing Miryu to glare at him. "Saito, please," she pleaded, before going back to nursing her husband's wound as best she could at the moment. Come to think of it, of all the times that he had to be almost mortally wounded, there was no alcohol about to stop any possible infection; even Sake would do the trick. For one thing, he had been an alcoholic and she had been hand-raised by Hiko Seijurou. It was a downright embarrassment for a woman in her station.

"Shishio Makoto, you will not escape!"

The melancholy of the moment was somehow broken by Sanosuke, who had jumped onto their boat, hoping to find the villain. "Sano…" Kenshin said, pointing towards the opposite direction. He was able to manage to stop the young man from causing a fuss by rocking the ship too much as he hurled unheard protests of dissatisfaction towards the cancellation of the fight against Shishio and his forces, just before Sanosuke aggravated Algren's wound even more. "Sano, please, Algren-dono is badly injured."

"Heh, Shishio just got lucky," Sanosuke mumbled before checking on Algren. However foolish he might have sounded, it could not be denied that without Sanosuke's help, things could have been for the worse. A battle to the end aboard a heavily armed ship that did _not_ belong to them awfully tipped the scales in the favor of their enemies, however honorable and noble Shishio was. Hiryuko, on the other hand, would have to rethink her strategies when trying to prune her family tree.

The two of them had learnt their lesson: no rival or opponent was not to be underestimated. Kenshin had gained his strength from those whom they protected, while Saito never once lost his edge to align himself with the power of the day. Miryu, although rather domesticated, was still as vicious as she had been, and Algren, the gaijin was a force to be reckoned with, along with Sanosuke, who seemed to be the most inexperienced of the lot.

"You know there is one thing about that foolish American," Yumi said to Shishio and Hiryuko. "He seems to be able to go to great lengths for Battouryu. One might say that he truly loves her."

Chuckling, Shishio held his woman closer to him. "Of course, darling, it is highly evident. Miryu is a woman that many men have died for during the Bakamatsu, and she has not lost her charm. However, he is only but one of the unworthy suitors after her heart, and one day, she would see that _we_ hold much more promise than that upstart American soldier." In his burning eyes, he envisioned killing Battousai and Algren and claiming the title of the strongest as well as the rule of Japan, with Yumi and Miryu by his side. "That day will come soon enough."

* * *

HAN: I'm finally back, WOOHOO! Granted, it has been a long, long time since I have posted anything, due to my final exams, and it got me a long time to get started, mainly because I have completely lost touch with Tom Cruise's voice, antics, etc, until I watched Knight and Day just this afternoon, ehehehehe. ^.^ So I hope that you enjoy this post and I shall be back for more!


	21. Opening

Algren's back hurt, and he knew clearly that he had not been anywhere near a sword and Miryu, which meant that she had not utterly beaten him in kenjutsu for the umpteenth time. "Glad that you're awake," he could hear Sanosuke's voice, followed by Kenshin's, telling the youth to get Miryu into the room. Where was his wife? Moments later, he could feel soft, but slightly calloused hands take his larger ones within them.

"Algren, are you alright?" she asked, unconsciously reverting to her old method to address him, which endeared her to him greatly. Concern ran through her sapphire eyes, and the idealistic war-veteran that was his wife had temporarily melted away, revealing the innocent young warrior that he had fallen for from the very first time they had met. Carefully, she asked him many questions in Japanese and in English, sometimes a mixed jabber of both, making it rather hard for him to comprehend what she was talking about. "Thank the Gods!" she finally said when she had poked and fussed enough. Then, her expression changed from one of relief into a condescending one. Whacking his good shoulder as hard as possible, she shouted, "Never do stupid things like that again!"

"I swear I won't," he wheezed, moving still pained him, but he knew his body well, and it would go off in the morning. "Well, who do I have to thank for patching me up?" he asked Kenshin and Sanosuke, who told him that it was a police-sent medical officer that rescued him in time. Of course, like every wounded soldier, he passed off his injury as something fairly minor, and did not see why his wife fussed so much about him; however, he remembered well why he had received that wound: he was protecting Miryu from an unhonorable strike from her treacherous cousin.

Pushing his hair from his eyes, Miryu kissed him on the forehead. "I would have never forgiven myself if you could not be saved," she told him in a small voice when the other two men took their leave to give them the privacy that they had needed. "Luckily, we found this inn for you to rest in, and we shall return to Kyoto tomorrow when you are well enough to travel… You scared me half to death, you bull-headed American!"

Algren drew her into his arms, allowing her to rest her head on his broad chest. Hiryuko was aiming for the kill, and she could have succeeded in her mission, if he did not stop her. Miryu had given him everything that he had now, and he would do anything to defend her. No words were exchanged, and he felt warm tears from her sapphire eyes on his bare chest. Slowly, he kissed them away, and then her brow, before tightening his hold over her tall, lithe form, inhaling her sweet scent. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear, slightly nibbling on the lobe, causing her to purr ever so softly.

A small smile broke into her fair face. "Well, as long as you're safe," she murmured, the candle-light illuminating her beauty in his eyes, moving closer to him, she made sure that she did not hurt him even more as she kissed him lightly on the lips, tentatively at first. However, Nathan Algren was a man that always wanted more, especially when Miryu was concerned. He deepened the kiss to the best of his abilities, tasting of her sweet flavor of peaches and Sake, something totally unrelated, but was a powerful and potent combination.

"Miryu…" he groaned when their tongues met, but was granted no more. Instead, his wife thrust to him a black concoction which smelled and tasted bitter. Once again, he had been seduced and fooled by her and her womanly wiles, falling hard for it. "You tricked me…" he complained, but she just kissed him again in the same manner after he had finished his bowl of medicine.

Smiling, she said, "I am not at fault if you are so gullible, Mr. Algren." Returning her head to his chest, she cuddled close to him, ready to fall asleep any moment. Even the strongest of warriors and the hardiest of men had to sleep, particularly when the battle of the age was to be fought in two days, they needed to be in top fighting form.

However, before sleep took them, Algren was able to retort, "And that's why you're Missus Algren," earning a playful jab from Miryu. There they slept, in the embrace of tender lovers, ready for whatever the morning brought them.

* * *

"Damn you, Algren, you can't go through anything without getting stabbed or shot," Saito complained the next morning the moment Miryu and Algren appeared before him with Graham, Kenshin and Sanosuke. However, he was just exaggerating. Algren was anything but totally useless on the battlefield, but when Miryu was concerned… Come to think of it, her grandfather would give him a piece of Aku. Zoku. Zan, if he had not done the same to protect her as well, nor would her dead mother forgive him if she somehow ended up dead by unnatural causes.

Algren found no words to speak for his actions, but there was no need, because Miryu was already glaring daggers at the man, shutting him up about the incident. "Saito, you had something to tell us, am I not correct?" she asked, cutting him off mid-sentence. There was only one person alive that could stare the Wolf of Mibu down, and that was his sworn-niece.

"No buildings were burnt down," Saito said, quickly disregarding his defeat, "And fifty minor blazes had been successfully put out with only forty-one police casualties… Not bad, not bad at all."

Kenshin begged to differ. "Forty-one good men are now dead, leaving behind their families," he argued, "that is never a good thing…" His sentiments were founded, but many things were to be risked in times like those, and it miffed Saito that a former hitokiri like him could have such soft tendencies. Miryu could only put a hand on his shoulder as comfort, while she technically stood by Saito's standpoint.

"Nevertheless, many more lives were saved from their sacrifice," Graham said, seconding Saito. "But what am I talking about, I'm just your average translator…" That was the closest thing to an outright lie anyone had heard of. The Englishman was more than just a translator, he was a witness to many, many events in Japan's recent history, from the battles of the Bakumatsu, to the last stand of the Samurai, wherever the action was, Graham was bound to be there. No doubt, he already had several photographs taken on the Rengoku and the fighting that had begun.

Miryu stepped out and said, "Gentlemen, it is time that we broke out from this little disagreement and look at the big picture. I'm sure Saito has many other things to do, we will wait for you until you call for us in the Aoiya." It was not a request, it was an order. Miryu, at her most vicious, was when she was smiling so much that her eyes appeared to be closed. It was a warning sign that she was in a highly _murderous_ mood, and a signal that Algren had known too well already.

"So, where is that place anyways?" Sanosuke asked. Ever since he had been in Kyoto, he had been detained in a police station with nowhere to go, and hence, there was little that he had seen around the ancient capital city of Japan. He would have missed it completely, if not for Kaoru's head peeking out of the doors. "Jou-chan! Good to see you!"

Yahiko had also emerged from within the inn, so much so that it seemed to be a reunion of sorts between Kenshin and his Tokyo-based companions. Miryu signaled Algren to take their leave silently, and they went up into their room.

* * *

The American could clearly see that his wife was highly perplexed, solving a puzzle in her mind. "Alright, spill it, Miryu," Algren said once he had closed the shoji doors of their room. "What's going on up there in your head?" At that moment of time, Miryu was sure that her husband looked as if he was interrogating some enemy soldier, and she knew that he would not stop until he had received the answers that he wanted.

Sighing, she replied, "Hiryuko was my cousin, one of the Ishin-Ishishi, and although she worked for the Satsuma-han, there was no inclination that she was just like Shishio Makoto…" True, she did not know her cousin well, and the only contact she ever had with Nagasaki Hiryuko was when she had saved her from Udo Jin'Eh during the Ikeda Incident, she knew from various reports that Hiryuko had been a loyal agent to the Ishin-Ishishi as she was. But something happened in the middle of that time frame, when the Choushu-han began to deal with the British forces… Hiryuko was said to have "gone rogue". "We are both daughters of the Ryujou line, Nathan, the last of our kind… How can I ever raise a weapon against her?"

Although Miryu was never seen to be a traditionalist in many ways, he knew that Miryu often honored several of the old ways, and she was exceptionally proud to have been a descendant of the Daughters of the Dragons. "Well, if she tried to kill you, you have to defend yourself against her," Algren told her, looking into his wife's sapphire eyes. "It's the only way…"

For one moment there, Miryu wanted nothing but to throw down her katana and tell Algren that she wanted a new life with him, away from the confusion and conflict, but as always, her duty was to Japan, and to those who could not defend themselves against the terrors of the times. "You are right," she murmured, placing her head on his shoulder. "You're always right, Captain Algren…"

"I'd do anything to help you out, Battouryu," he replied. His actions had shown more than just words shared between a couple of warriors, and she knew it all too well; she would have done the same for him as well, if given the chance and opportunity. "Just don't take it too hard on yourself; you'll need to be focusing on your fight against Shishio and his lackeys."

"Shishio and Hiryuko are only the least of my worries," Miryu told him, looking around the city from their window. The Aoiya was strategically placed, right in the heart of Kyoto city, and there was no doubt that it would be a prime target when they would leave to fight in Mt. Hiei… Hiko was enlisted to help, but they still did not know whether he would even budge, having isolated himself from the world for so long… "Nathan, I want you to stay here and protect the Aoiya as best you can."

Somehow, Algren had already anticipated that Miryu would say something like that, and she had the greatest excuse as well, because he had an injury on his shoulder, which made him less able to fight against whatever those two villains would throw at them. He would be safer with the Oniwabanshuu and Kenshin's other companions, with Graham in tow. "You think of everything, don't you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Miryu nodded, and kissed his temple as she moved towards the window. "Kyoto is where I grew up, Nathan, where I made my own name and forged my own destiny… I cannot allow her to burn, nor can I allow her to be taken advantage of when Kenshin, Saito, Sanosuke and I are away. In the short time that you have been here, you have come to love this country as much as I do. Nathan, this time, _I_ must enlist your help, to protect this city."

"You never had to ask," Algren told her, placing an arm around her shoulder. What she had was true, he had come to love Japan as she had, and that he loved the country as much as he loved his beautiful wife. He would do everything in his power to defend her. "I was just worried if you never wanted my help."

There was a slight chuckle that they had shared after that, and they looked into each other's eyes: fiery sapphire and tempestuous ocean-hued ones. Quickly, they were drawn into a kiss that scorched their souls, a promise to one another. It would be the first time since they had met that they would fight on separate fronts, but not the first time that they would risk their lives for those that they had pledged to protect… They knew that however hard for them it was, duty always came first, and it was what they had decided to see through.

When the next morning came, Algren bid goodbye to his wife, with nothing more than a Japanese bow on her part. Whatever that was needed to be said, had been said the night previous. "You do know that there is a huge possibility that she could be a young widow, or you a widower when this ends, don't you, Algren-dono?" Okina asked him, when Miryu was seen to look back towards them even as they walked towards the light of the rising sun.

"We try not to think too much about it," Algren replied. With their line of work, being attached to diplomats and politicians, it was already dangerous to start with. "One thing that I've learnt here is there is always life in every breath, and Miryu and I, we try to live as we know it the best."

The wizened Onmitsu could only agree with those words. "Life in every breath, eh?" he repeated. "Well, we shall see, won't we? Who will really inherit the new age…"


	22. Ruminations

As dawn crept slowly over the Kyoto Mountains, Miryu rose from Algren's embrace and donned her leather suit with her new katana in tow. The day had come when they would face those that threatened the peace of the new age that Japan had been ushered into, and she, Saito, Kenshin and Sanosuke would fight until the very last inch of their being to ensure their victory.

"Go get them, tiger," Algren said as they all assembled before the doors of the Aoiya, just as the sun started to shine above them. Miryu was in his arms, silent, but he knew that her resolve was stronger than anything. She was a woman ready to die for her country, and if that was her fate, she would welcome it whole-heartedly. "And make sure that you come back, Mrs. Algren."

She smiled, a genuine smile that brightened her beautiful features, a smile that Algren knew held a bittersweet promise that she would try to do as he had told her to do. "I will try, Algren," she reassured him as he fisted some of her long, black hair, inhaling the scent of her hair just before she would leave. Although they were now on first-name terms as husband and wife, Miryu still used his last name in times of tenderness, and it made her thought of the slightly happier days of their courtship, when Katsumoto Moritsugu had been alive. "You must do your best to stay alive as well…"

They share a mutual chuckle, but Miryu could tell from his sea-colored eyes that he was serious. Thus, she took the initiative to pull away and started to walk away from her husband, not failing to retain eye-contact. In the other corner of her eye, was Kenshin, saying goodbye to Kaoru and Yahiko, as well as Misao and Okina. "When you come back, we'll go back to Tokyo together," the seventeen year-old girl proclaimed happily, and Kenshin nodded. It was a promise that he would see delivered, whatever the cost.

No words were uttered as the four warriors walked towards Mt. Hiei, no words of comfort were given, nor words that described their impending doom were even heard of. The only sounds heard were the sounds of their footsteps, and the sounds made by the waking city, as well as the bell tied to the tsuba of Miryu's katana. The rustle of the summer leaves, the slow caress of the wind, and the chirping of the many-colored birds that dotted the skyline, every single sound imaginable, marred by the glumness of the realization that they would either meet their impending doom.

Miryu remembered a time when young, unmarried girls would go to Mt. Hiei to pray for a good husband, while young, married couples would pray for children, and old, squabbling grandmothers and grandfathers would pray for great-grandchildren. She came to the shrine with Katsumoto as her chaperone, who had brought his young son to pray for a pretty, young wife.

* * *

"_What kind of husband did you pray for, Miryu?"__ Katsumoto asked Miryu, while Nobutada was still praying. Even then, at the tender age of seventeen, Miryu did not blush at all. "A handsome man? A man that can out-drink you?" He knew the young woman well, especially her talents, and asked those questions only to tease something out of her. _

_She looked at the statue that she had just prayed before, and said, "__A man who fights like I do, who can hold a wife like I, and who loves me because I plan to fight for the weak until the day I die, and he will help me." Katsumoto looked at the wild light in her sapphire eyes and just shook his head. She was young, idealistic, and not even the darkest of wars could ever bring her down. She had come to the Choushu-han as a wide-eyed girl of fifteen, and now, she was their greatest asset at seventeen. _

"_One day, child, you will find the love that you will seek," he told her, patting the young crown of her dark, long hair. "I am sure of it."

* * *

_

She remembered a time when she was young, and the world was her oyster. She had been the hope for the future, and now, she was one of the vanguards of the age. Twelve years ago, she had come to that mountain with her second teacher, and the man she had come to love as a brother; twelve years later, she was walking up that mountain, with Kenshin, Saito and Sanosuke, walking up that mountain to protect Japan from terror and war once again.

* * *

"_Miryu, do you know why the Daughters of the Dragon are so special?"Katsumoto asked Miryu, seconds after her answer. "They are descended from a real Dragon, and thus, they are fierce, they are beautiful and graceful, and they are strong. Samurai men fall after them from mother to daughter, because they show them a life they cannot imagine."

* * *

_

A life they cannot imagine? What he meant then, she could never, ever guess for the life of her, what he had meant. Algren had told her exactly that, on the night they got married. Her husband had told her that had given him peace, through her smile, and because of that, he did not need to depend on alcohol any more. He had told her that she had a fire that he could ever imagine, something that came from within her…

* * *

"_Never let this fire die, Miryu, this way, you will never lose yourself."

* * *

_

That fire faltered once, on the night she had met Shishio Makoto for the first time. He had promised her power, and he had promised her something even better: freedom. He had kissed her, her first kiss, and it was more frightening than anything she had ever known, because of what he had promised her. At that moment, she knew that if she took his hand, the one beside Shishio now, would not be Komagata Yumi, but Tsubasa Miryu. They would not wed, but live as they would, unbound by the chains of society… Such a promise to her, to a nineteen year-old girl, who had known nothing but blood and war, was so powerful and poisonous that she began to fear it.

And the worse thing was that he still held that promise to her. He was still offering what he had offered ten years ago to her. He had been a handsome man then, he was a highly charismatic man now, even without his looks. There was a deep seduction about him, and every time she met him, there was that feeling, gnawing at her insides, a question that burned in her mind, threatening to consume her. Her life with Algren was one of love and comfort, of passion, but whenever she saw that man again, the dark feeling in the days of her youth surrounded her, demanding something more than what she had… _"Power, Miryu, power than that you can never imagine, Miryu! You are a kenkaku, a daughter of the Line of Dragons. Come with me, and you will have this power, to rule over a nation that has only wanted dominion over you!"_

Shishio Makoto was shot in the head and was then burnt alive… His only sin then, was that he had known too many secrets of the government, so much that he had to be silenced. This fact haunted Miryu the most, because she had been what Shishio was, a shadow hitokiri, a child of the night that killed according to the wishes of those above, without question. It had haunted her for ten years, and counting…

* * *

"_I saw him, the hitokiri of the shadows," Miryu told Katsumoto after he had brought her to the Imperial Palace to serve as the Emperor's bodyguard. "Tell me, what happened that he has to be put down in such a fate?" She knew that Katsumoto would know about Shishio Makoto, he had been relieved to see Kenshin and her fighting in the open, and even more so when he knew that their replacement was just as powerful as they had been. _

_Katsumoto shook his head and put a hand on Miryu's shoulder. "He has tried to blackmail the government using the deaths that he had caused," he replied, knowing that Miryu would settle with little less than the truth in its entirety. "He knows too much, child, and must be stopped."_

_Her sapphire eyes widened. "So, if Kenshin and I had not been removed from his position, you would threaten to quiet us down in that way as well?" she asked again, her voice now slightly shaken. However, Katsumoto presented her with a different view, a view that offered her slight comfort, in the least. _

"_You and Himura are pure of heart," he told her sternly, as though he was lecturing Nobutada over something or other. "We know that you can never betray us, that you can _never_ betray us, and that is why we cannot bear for you to be merely murderers. We needed you to be what you had been, agile warriors, with precision and a high sense of duty. Shishio Makoto had been as volatile as gunpowder, that is why he must be put down." _

"_Surely, you have tried to silence him? Sometimes, men are fickle… Money… women… have you tried those things?"_

"_If he could be bought, we could have bought him already, Miryu." She had said those words not out of naiveté, but out of desperation. He knew that she wanted to believe that there could be a less cruel fate to be suffered by a former comrade. Katsumoto sighed, and looked into her dark, sapphire eyes, saying, "I do not want you to worry over such trivial matters now, child. You are safe from that monster, because he cannot hound you in death. Promise me that you will never fret over this matter, and focus on your new task at hand."_

_Her new task… To defend the Emperor… She was a student of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, her oath was to protect those who could not do so themselves. The Emperor would have the best protection, but she decided to protect only him, because the people still saw their Emperor as a living god, anyways, they had Kenshin amongst them. The ruler of Japan was just a boy, in the mercy of a council of old and musty men who had gotten their offices from the blood of their Bakufu enemies; that was why she had chosen to protect him…

* * *

_

Who could ever guess that now the tides had changed so greatly?

Shishio Makoto was walking amongst the living, while Katsumoto was dead for a year now… Her world had been turned upside down… This was a mission that she had to complete with her own bare hands, in any way possible, or her soul would be as troubled as Kenshin's. She knew that it was the beginning of the truth for her best friend as well. If they won, it would mean that they were able to stand up to the devils that lied within them, and they were able to persevere, and protect Japan until the day they died. And in the event that if they failed, Japan would be plunged into darkness, and they would be worse than dead, they would be cursed by those that they had sworn to protect, because history was always written by the victors.

Her thoughts died down, and a beautiful woman stood before them as they approached the shrine upon Mt. Hiei. It was Komagata Yumi, Shishio's beloved Oiran that had once taken the world of men into a storm. "Shishio-sama bids you welcome to our humble fortress," she said, bowing before them in greeting. "I will be your guide in this vast labyrinth, please, follow me."

Miryu nodded to the other woman, while the men just acknowledged her presence. The gesture could be a genuine one, since it was commonly known that Sanosuke, Saito and Kenshin were not interested in her at all, even if the former oiran was an incredibly sensuous beauty. No, Yumi's presence was a psychological message sent to her…

"Miryu, are you alright?" Kenshin asked as she faltered a step. To his relief, she smiled, and nodded.

"I'm alright, don't worry…" Miryu replied, and looked towards the fortress after Yumi had opened the doors.

The oiran smiled, and said, "Shishio-sama has also demanded that this challenge is to be fought warrior against warrior, the best of what the pig-headed government has to offer, against our best, and nothing else. The others who are not involved in the battle are not to interfere. With that in mind, I bring you your first opponent, Anji, the King of the Light."

The man who stood in the middle of a dark red room could almost be classified as a giant. He was heavily muscled, tall and perfectly able to crush the skulls of men with those hands. But before anyone could come up with any strategy in their heads, Sanosuke was the one who reacted to this man's presence in the battlefield. There was no doubt that the youth would be his challenger.


End file.
